Michelle Obama’s Brother Doubted Barack Obama Relationship

Michelle Obama’s brother, Craig Robinson, didn’t always approve of Barack Obama.

Robinson opened up about his first impressions of the former president on Wednesday’s episode of the siblings’ new podcast, “IMO.”

“So, Miche starts to date Barack, and we don’t know who this guy is,” Robinson says. “We just like ‘Barack? Who’s got a name like Barack?’ And I’m thinking to myself, it’s going to last about a month like most of your relationships did.”

Robinson recalled the day his sister brought Barack Obama over to meet the family and shared his family’s first impressions.

“When she gets out of the car, and I remember mom’s first thing was, ‘Ooh, at least he’s tall,’” he said of their late mother, Marian Robinson. “And I said to myself, ‘Well, it’s too bad it’s not going to last.’”

“But the best part of it was, after we met him and she had been dating him for a little while, she said, ‘Would you mind, Craig, taking him to play [basketball]?’” Robinson shared that the family always felt you could figure out someone’s true character by how they played pick-up basketball.

“And at first I said, ‘No way ― I am not doing your dirty work for you,’” Robinson said. “If he turns out to be a bad dude, I am not going to be the one to say.”

The former college basketball coach said that he “finally acquiesced” and went out to play with his now brother-in-law, from whom he learned a lot.

“We had a great time playing,” Robinson said.

“Most importantly, he was a team player. He fit in with the people,” he added. “And so I was able to report back to you. Everything was fine, and the rest is history.”

Barack and Michelle Obama are still going strong, as the two recently celebrated their 32nd wedding anniversary in October, despite rumblings that they were headed for divorce.

Michelle Obama addressed divorce rumors recently during a visit to Sophia Bush’s podcast, “Work in Progress.”

“That’s the thing that we as women, I think … we struggle with disappointing people,” she said earlier this month. “I mean, so much so, that this year people were … they couldn’t even fathom that I was making a choice for myself that they had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing.”