Barack Obama: I cried dropping Malia off at university

He may be a former leader of the free world, but Barack Obama was no different from millions of other parents when it came to waving his daughter off to university for the first time.

The former president said he “sniffled and blew his nose” in front of Secret Service bodyguards after dropping 19-year-old Malia off at Harvard University.

Speaking at a reception for a children’s charity set up in memory of former vice president Joe Biden's late son Beau, Obama added that watching his oldest daughter leave home to begin her college career “was a little bit like open-heart surgery”, CNBC reports.

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“I was proud that I did not cry in front of her,” he said. “But on the way back, the Secret Service was off, looking straight ahead, pretending they weren't hearing me as I sniffled and blew my nose.”

Barack and Michelle Obama, both themselves alumni of the prestigious university’s law school, were spotted helping Malia move into student housing on campus in August.

Boston Globe reporter Steve Annear, who was on the scene at the time, said the former first daughter chatted with her new classmates and seemed like “just another freshman”, USA Today reports.

But although Malia may want to be treated like any other fresher, her arrival on campus inevitably caused some excitement among her fellow students:

The Obamas’ younger daughter, 16-year-old Sasha, is at high school in Washington D.C.