Before Barack Obama became a global icon and US president, he shared a deep, formative relationship with a woman who didn’t become his wife. An old biography uncovered the little-known story of the woman he asked to marry him, twice.While many people view former US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama as the epitome of true love, love didn’t initially go his way. Before Barack got down on one knee to ask Michelle to marry him, he was interested in another woman.In David J. Garrow’s biography, “Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama,” the author reportedly reveals that the former president was once in love with Sheila Miyoshi Jager. Their relationship occurred while Barack was living in Chicago during his early 20s.

Like the politician’s mother, Jager, a woman of Dutch and Japanese descent, also studied anthropology. According to the book, the couple seemed like a natural fit, but the former anthropology student confessed to Garrow that their life together often felt isolating.According to Jager, their relationship was “an island unto ourselves,” with Barack known to “compartmentalise his work and home life.” At the time, Michelle’s future husband worked as a community organiser and wrote fiction in his spare time.Yet even then, he already believed he would one day become president of the US. Garrow noted that she quickly recognised “a deep-seated need to be loved and admired” in him