Malia Obama’s love life: was Nick Jonas the one that got away? Or Drake? The guys Rory Farquharson (kind of) had to fight off, and why Barack is the king of embarrassing his daughter in front of her crushes

Barack Obama has recently come around to the idea of his 21-year-old daughter Malia Obama being in a relationship with well-born Brit Rory Farquharson, but did these four guys come closer to being Malia’s beau than they realised?

Many details about the first daughter’s lives inside the White House are protected, but in mum Michelle’s memoir Becoming she wrote about being a typical embarrassing parent when a boy Malia “kind of liked” was her prom date. The former first lady admitted her eldest daughter was annoyed that she walked around without shoes and that Barack wore flip flops in front of her suited suitor. Looking back, Malia confesses the experience was “a bit excruciating”. Perhaps we’ll have to wait for Malia’s book to find out who the lucky guy dating a 16-year-old president’s daughter was.

He’s now married to Priyanka Chopra, but like many other girls her age, Malia Obama used to seriously crush on the Jonas Brothers singer-turned-solo act. That much became clear in a behind-the-scenes clip from the Democratic National Convention where Barack and Michelle joked about how nervous their child would be to meet the Disney star.

Malia then had multiple opportunities to meet the teen heartthrob after moving into the White House, including during a visit to The Ellen DeGeneres Show and when The Jonas Brothers came to her crib for a scavenger hunt. But of course nothing became of the pair at the time as Malia was only 10 years old and he was 16. À la Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears, perhaps there was hope of romance later in life (at least on Malia’s part), but Nick dated other big names and ended up marrying Chopra in 2018.