
The former US president, 63, was a guest on his wife Michelle Obama’s IMO podcast alongside her older brother Craig Robinson.
The episode will premiere on Wednesday, July 16.
A preview shared ahead of its release showed Barack and Michelle discussing raising their two daughters, Sasha, 24, and Malia, 27.
“I think we did a pretty good job of raising our girls, but I've said often that I think I would have had more difficulty raising a son,” Barack said, to which Michelle replied, “I agree.”
“I think I might've been more judgmental, harder, and I would've tried to — I'd like to think I would have been more self-aware enough to combat that, but I just think father-son relationships, for me, particularly if I don't have a dad around to show it to me, might've been more difficult,” the former president added.
Barack has previously opened up about the minimal presence his father had in his own life, as he was born in Hawaii and raised by his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, after his parents divorced when he was two years old.
This is not the first time Barack and Michelle have addressed a hypothetical son. Last month, during a different episode of her IMO podcast, the former first lady said she was “so glad” she didn’t have a boy.