Lost Obama interview published in France

He is a young black lawyer from Chicago, tempted by a career in politics.

His wife, who is also a lawyer, is worried about the impact of politics on their private lives. She admits, frankly, that they have “spats” on the subject. “There’s a big chance Barack will go into politics,” she says. “When that happens, your life becomes public property and the people who take an interest in it are not necessarily going to be on your side.”

Related articles

• Gay bishop to take part in Obama ceremony
• Search the news archive for more stories

The time is November 1996. Barack and Michelle Obama – aged 35 and 32 – were being interviewed by the photographer Mariana Cook for a book on modern couples in 1990s America. The interview was dropped from the final version by the publisher. Just over 12 years later, as Barack Obama is about to be sworn in, the text has been published for the first time by the French newspaper, Le Monde.

What is striking is how much the young, and still private, Barack and Michelle Obama, resemble their older, public selves. Barack Obama says he wants to enter politics to remind conservative America that “values” are not just a matter of individual conscience. Michelle Obama talks, amusingly, of her immediate attraction to the “brilliant, handsome, intelligent” young law student, who was too good to be true and “probably an asshole”.