Tracee Ellis Ross Calls Out Barack Obama for Friendship Mistake

Tracee Ellis Ross thinks former President Barack Obama owes her an apology.

“I broke up with someone, and I remember running into the former president and he was like, ‘I could have told you that,’” Ross, 52, recalled during a Thursday, August 14, appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

“And I was like, ‘Well, you failed as a friend!’ Like, it was your job to say that before, you know what I mean?” she continued. “Like, nip it in the bud.”

Ross also revealed that despite their close friendship, she’s never asked Barack or his wife, former First Lady Michelle Obama, to set her up on a date.

“I’ve never asked Michelle to set me up, which I think perhaps is dumb and I need to get on that,” she joked.

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Ross also discussed her romantic life when she appeared on Michelle Obama’s “IMO” podcast in April 2025. She admitted to Michelle and her brother Craig Robinson that she usually dates younger men for one key reason.

“A lot of men my age are steeped in a toxic masculinity and have been raised in a culture where there is a particular way that a relationship looks,” Ross explained. “Anything that starts to smell of that for me — I did enough of it where I was controlled and felt like I was a possession or a prize — I just have no interest in it. And I will not do it again.”

Ross also said that she’s just no longer interested in expecting men her age to behave appropriately. “I have long been past the age where I feel like it’s my job to teach somebody or grow them up,” she concluded.

Tracee Ellis Ross Monica Schipper/Getty Images for The Business of Fashion

Though she’s been open about being interested in having a romantic partner, Ross has also made no secret of the fact that she leads a full, dynamic life all on her own. She frequently travels (and looks amazing while doing so), something that is highlighted in her 2025 series Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross.

The series debuted on July 25, 2025, and is available for free on the Roku channel.

In an interview with the New York Times published the same day, Ross explained that she doesn’t offer travel tips.

“I don’t believe in advice. I offer experience and hope. And this is my version. My transparency is about how I can give you a jumping-off point,” she said. “I say this in the Mexico episode: There’s got to be something between cat ladies and Joan of Arc. You know what I mean?”

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She added, “Like, I really wish I had some other pictures on the wall culturally and historically that would show me what it means to push up against the cultural norm and choose yourself — of the revolutionary act of joy, particularly for a Black woman, and of having the agency and the freedom to make choices that work for you, whether you have a partner or not.”