Michelle's College and Law School Romances

While interviewing people for a profile I wrote of Michelle Obama that ran as the cover story in Chicago magazine (February, 2009), I had from an impeccable source the name of Michelle's boyfriend at Princeton (an impressive man whom I interviewed but did not name in the story because he would not speak to the question of whether he was her boyfriend.

I had from another impeccable source the identity of her Harvard Law School boyfriend. He refused to be interviewed: "Unfortunately, it's not the kind of thing I'm interested in doing," he emailed me. He is the son of a famous singer/entertainer.

I left both men out of the piece and wrote nothing about her college and law school romances, although I heard from readers of the piece who asked me why I didn't track down former beaus.

Had either of these relationships lasted and followed her to Chicago where she worked as an associate at the law firm Sidley & Austin--that's where she met Barack Obama who spent the summer at the firm after his first year at Harvard Law--history's course would have been changed.

Michelle, I believe, was as crucial to Barack's ascension to the presidency as Hillary was to Bill's or as Laura was to George's (Had Laura not threatened to leave him if he continued his frat boy/drunken ways, he would not have become governor of Texas and then president.)

What made me think again of Michelle Robinson's school romances is a story in the Telegraph (via the Enquirer magazine) in which the British paper's New York correspondent writes about Michelle's high school prom date. David Upchurch, divorced and a customer service representative who lives in Colorado, was a neighbor of the Robinsons and a family friend.

Their relationship did not survive high school graduation in 1981 and Michelle's next move--to Princeton University where she earned her Bachelor's in sociology before heading to law school at Harvard.