Obama Compares Dropping Malia Off At Harvard University To 'Open Heart Surgery'

CAMBRIDGE, MA — This week, former POTUS Barack Obama told an audience at an event in Delaware that dropping his oldest daughter off at college in Cambridge this year was extremely difficult - tear jerking, actually.

Obama joined former Vice President Joe Biden at the at the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children golf and tennis invitational on Sept. 25, at the Wilmington Country Club.

Obama spoke about the legacy of Biden's late son, Beau, the foundation's work, and compared dropping Malia off at Harvard University for her first year to "open heart surgery," as seen in a video provided by local news outlet WDEL.

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"For those of us who have daughters, it just happens fast," he said. "I dropped Malia off at college and I was saying to Joe and Jill, it really was a little like open heart surgery."

Obama joked that he was proud that he did not cry in front of his daughter, 19, who is a freshman at Harvard after taking a gap year following high school.

"But on the way back, the secret service, they looked straight ahead," he joked. "I think they pretended they couldn't hear me. It was rough, and it was a reminder that at the end of our lives, whatever else we've accomplished; the things that we'll remember are the joys of our children, and hopefully way later, grandchildren."

The Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children was founded by the Biden family, following the death of former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, of brain cancer in 2015.

To watch Obama's full remarks at the event, head over to WDEL to watch the full video.

Top Image: Former President Barack Obama and his daughter Malia.

Getty Photo by Mandel Ngan