Michelle Obama’s mother, Marian Robinson, has died.
Michelle Obama’s mother Robinson, the mother of the former first lady, died on Friday, May 31, her family told NBC News in a statement. She was 86 years old.
Following the news, Michelle shared a message on X, formerly Twitter, remembering her mother.
“My mom Marian Robinson was my rock, always there for whatever I needed,” she wrote. “She was the same steady backstop for our entire family, and we are heartbroken to share she passed away today.”
“She passed peacefully this morning, and right now, none of us are quite sure how exactly we’ll move on without her,” NBC’s statement read.
It added that the lifelong Chicago resident left her hometown with “a healthy nudge” when her daughter moved into the White House with former President Barack Obama after he won the 2008 election.
“We needed her. The girls needed her. And she ended up being our rock through it all,” the family said.
“She relished her role as a grandmother. … And although she enforced whatever household rules we’d set for bedtime, watching TV, or eating candy, she made clear that she sided with her ‘grandbabies’ in thinking that their parents were too darn strict.”
The statement, which was shared by Michelle and Barack; Michelle’s brother Craig Robinson and his wife, Kelly; and Marian Robinson’s grandchildren, Avery, Leslie, Malia, Sasha, Austin and Aaron, continued, “There was and will be only one Marian Robinson.”
“In our sadness, we are lifted up by the extraordinary gift of her life. And we will spend the rest of ours trying to live up to her example.”
Barack, 62, also expressed his condolences on the passing of Michelle Obama’s mother in a separate statement.
“There was and will be only one Marian Robinson. In our sadness, we are lifted up by the extraordinary gift of her life. And we will spend the rest of ours trying to live up to her example,” the former president wrote in a tweet.