MOM HUMOR

Michelle Obama’s Mom Doesn’t Think She’s a “Real” Celebrity

And she wasn’t exactly impressed by her daughter’s cameo at the Grammys.


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ROBYN BECK/Getty Images

Sharing screenshots of texts with your mom may seem more like social media joke territory traversed by the likes of Reese Witherspoon, but, in an unexpected turn of events, Michelle Obama is the latest celebrity to post some mom humor on Instagram.

Obama sort of “memed” her mom on Tuesday, when she took a moment away from her work with the Gila River Indian Community, in Arizona, to share screenshots of a conversation between herself and her mother, Marian Shields Robinson, regarding the former first lady’s surprise appearance at the 2019 Grammy Awards. “When your mom doesn’t think you’re a ‘real’ celebrity…Tonight in Phoenix, I shared this text thread from my mom from #Grammys night, and I just had to share it with all of you. #TextsFromMom ?,” she wrote in the caption of the screenshots.

After Robinson texted her daughter to tell her that she had watched her on television, Obama replied that the text was “so typically you” to her mom. It turns out Robinson only watched the Grammys after she was told by an outside source that her daughter would make an appearance onstage. “Did you meet any of the real stars or did you run right after you were done,” she asked, which is, admittedly, such a typical mom thing to say. Obama later had to remind her mom that she is “a real star…by the way,” to which Robinson just replied, “Yeah.”

Some important insights we are not privy to in this screenshot shared by Obama include the number of unread messages or notifications the former first lady has on her phone and her battery percentage levels (the exchange took place toward the end of the day, but one can only hope that Obama’s phone stays perpetually juiced up with a portable charger), both of which say a lot about the way a person uses her device to communicate. But what we are privy to is the fact that Obama seemingly has her text-message font set to large, she regularly sprinkles emojis into casual conversation, and her mom remains nonplussed by the celebrity status of her daughter.

One can only hope that next up in Obama’s revealing Instagram posts will be screenshots of her correspondence in her family group chat with Barack, Malia, and Sasha.

Related: Michelle Obama Wore Sparkly Over-the-Knee Balenciaga Boots to Hang Out With Sarah Jessica Parker