Barack Hussein Obama

In a 2006 interview, Obama highlighted the diversity of his extended family: "It's like a little mini-United Nations", he said. "I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher."Obama has seven half-siblings from his Kenyan father's family – six of them living – and a half-sister with whom he was raised, Maya Soetoro-Ng, the daughter of his mother and her
Indonesian second husband. Obama's mother was survived by her Kansas-born mother, Madelyn Dunham,until her death on November 2, 2008, two days before his election to the Presidency. In Dreams from My Father, Obama ties his mother's family history to possible Native American ancestors and distant relatives of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.Obama's great-uncle served in the 89th Division that overran Ohrdruf, the first of the Nazi concentration camps to be liberated by U.S. troops during World War II.

Obama was known as "Barry" in his youth, but asked to be addressed with his given name during his college years.Besides his native English, Obama speaks Indonesian at the conversational level, which he learned during his four childhood years in Jakarta. He plays basketball, a sport he participated in as a member of his high school's varsity team.
Obama is a well known supporter of the Chicago White Sox, and threw out the first pitch at the 2005 ALCS when he was still a Senator.In 2009, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the all star game while wearing a White Sox jacket.He is also primarily a Chicago Bears fan in the NFL, but is known to also support the Pittsburgh Steelers, and openly rooted for them in their victory in Super Bowl XLIII 12 days after Obama took office as President.

In June 1989, Obama met Michelle Robinson when he was employed as a summer associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin. Assigned for three months as Obama's adviser at the firm, Robinson joined him at group social functions, but declined his initial requests to date. They began dating later that summer, became engaged in 1991, and were married on October 3, 1992.The couple's first daughter, Malia Ann, was born on July 4, 1998,followed by a second daughter, Natasha ("Sasha"), on June 10, 2001.The Obama daughters attended the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. When they moved to Washington, D.C., in January 2009, the girls started at the private Sidwell Friends School.The Obamas have a Portuguese Water Dog named Bo, a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy.

Applying the proceeds of a book deal, the family moved in 2005 from a Hyde Park, Chicago condominium to a $1.6 million house in neighboring Kenwood, Chicago.The purchase of an adjacent lot and sale of part of it to Obama by the wife of developer, campaign donor and friend Tony Rezko attracted media attention because of Rezko's subsequent indictment and conviction on political corruption charges that were unrelated to Obama.

In December 2007, Money magazine estimated the Obama family's net worth at $1.3 million.Their 2009 tax return showed a household income of $5.5 million—up from about $4.2 million in 2007 and $1.6 million in 2005—mostly from sales of his books.

Obama tried to quit smoking several times over the years and has used nicotine replacement therapy.However in June 2010, during a congratulatory phone call to president-elect Benigno Aquino of the Philippines, Obama told Aquino that he had quit and would offer advice on how to stop smoking when Aquino was himself ready for that step.