President Obama reveals that he quit smoking because he’s afraid of First Lady Michelle Obama.
During a recent conversation with United Nations General Assembly attendee Maina Kiai, the president joked with the UN official saying, “I haven’t had a cigarette in probably six years… that’s because I’m scared of my wife.”
In 2009, Obama admitted that despite efforts to fully quit, he still struggled with his smoking habit.
“I’ve said before that as a former smoker I constantly struggle with it,” he explained. “Have I fallen off the wagon sometimes? Yes. Am I a daily smoker, a constant smoker? No.”
The president also told People that reports of him being a smoker were always made into a bigger issue than it really was.
“That was always a little over-hyped,” he said. “You know, I’d sneak maybe three, four cigarettes a day, then I could go three or four days without one.”
The president finally broke the habit in 2011 and although he says it’s his wife who whipped him into shape, Mrs. Obama credits their daughters as the main motivation behind his quitting.
“I know that his ability to ultimately kick the habit was because of the girls, because they’re at the age now where you can’t hide.” she said. “I think that he didn’t want to look his girls in the eye and tell them that they shouldn’t be doing something that he was still doing.”
