Families change when our children grow and we have to make room for partners and spouses.

That’s something former President Barack Obama understands. The 59-year-old father of two welcomed his 22-year-old daughter Malia’s boyfriend into the family during the pandemic.

As Entertainment Tonight reports, Malia’s boyfriend, Rory Farquharson, also attends Harvard University and the two students have been seeing each other since 2017.

“He’s British. Wonderful young man,” Obama said on The Bill Simmons Podcast. “He was sort of stuck because there was a whole visa thing and he had a job set up, so we took him in.”


And so, the former president ended up playing board games with his family while they were bored in quarantine—including Farquharson.

“Like, I think, a lot of families, we went through that first month where we were playing games every night and doing little arts and crafts projects and then slowly they started to get a little bored with us,” he said. “Maybe teaching Malia and Sasha, and Malia’s boyfriend who was with us for a while, spades. And then having some spades games. Teaching them how to properly trash talk and slap the cards down.”

The former president’s story is a reminder of how fast our little ones will grow up.