The surprising lives of former First Daughters: from Playboy to Hollywood

Born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1980, Chelsea Clinton — the only child of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — was forced into the spotlight at just 12 years old when her father ran for president. While life in the public eye was tough for the teenager, who famously was bullied by comedians and the press during her time in the White House, her mom and dad tried to keep her unique home life as routine as possible. 

"I was always deeply aware that I was living in history," Chelsea told Marlo Thomas in an interview shared by Huffington Post. "But then I would have dinner with my parents at the kitchen table every night. There was so much about my life that also was normal." 

A social worker, criminal justice reformer, Ashley is founder of socially conscious fashion initiative Livelihood. She was married to cosmetic surgeon Dr. Howard Krein for 13 years, but filed for divorce in 2024.

Sister to Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015, and Hunter Biden, who is a frequent podcast guest and is vocal on social media, she steers clear of the public spotlight. 

"The cruelty and the meanness, that's why I don't have a social media account that's public," she said in the Today Show interview. "Part of it is also having boundaries for myself, because I believe in kindness, and I believe in the humanity of all of us." 

Barack and Michelle Obama's daughters Malia and Sasha were just 10 and seven years old when they began living in the White House in 2009, along with their parents and maternal grandmother Marian Robinson.

On the Baby This Is Keke Palmer podcast, Michelle revealed her strategy as a mom raising kids in the public eye. "With them, it was really just trying to keep them focused on their lives," she reflected. "They could never miss school or something that they had to do for school because something cool was happening right at the White House. They only traveled with us on their breaks — so summers, and there's spring break when they weren’t at camp. So the goal was to make their lives as normal as possible.” 

Despite their former lives as first daughters, younger sister Sasha, who graduated from the University of Southern California in 2023, and older sister Malia, who graduated from Harvard in 2021, have eschewed politics in favor of cultural roles in their careers. Michelle has recently revealed that Sasha has returned to school to further her education.

Malia is a Hollywood writer and film director, who wrote for Amazon’s Swarm, and directed a Sundance short film The Heart. Wanting to make a name for herself in the entertainment industry, she has dropped her iconic surname in her professional credits, going simply by Malia Ann, instead.

The sisters, who dad Barack has described as "cool, smart and funny," live together in Los Angeles and, according to mom Michelle, continue to be close. In 2022, the former first lady said on Today: "There was a period of time when they couldn't stand each other, and I said, 'You wait — you are going to wake up one day and you're going to look over at that other person, and you're going to know that you two share something very unique,' especially given what they’ve been through," she said.

"To see them in that place where they're one another's support systems and they've got each other’s backs, it’s the thing that a mother would want."

Born on November 25, 1981, fraternal twins Barbara and Jenna have also avoided dipping their toes into politics like their father, former President George W. Bush, and grandfather President George H.W. Bush, Sr.

The twins frequently made headlines growing up — they were 19 when their dad was elected to his first term — and had the Secret Service code names "Twinkle" for Jenna, and "Turquoise" for Barbara.

About to start college when they shot into the spotlight, with Jenna attending The University of Texas at Austin, she had an infamous run-in with the law when she was cited for both possession of alcohol and using a fake ID to purchase alcohol. 

She recalled telling her father about the incident during a segment on Today with Hoda and Jenna. "When I called my dad to say, 'I'm really sorry' ... he said, 'No, I'm sorry," Jenna said. "He said, 'I'm sorry, I told you (that) you can be normal, and you can't. You can't order margaritas.'" 

Jenna — who wed businessman Henry Hager in 2008 and is mom to Mila, Poppy, and Hal —  parlayed her fame into media, hosting Today with Hoda & Jenna and later Today with Jenna & Sheinelle.

Barbara, married to screenwriter Craig Louis Coyne since 2018 and a mom of two, is focused on healthcare access and social impact as co-founder and president of a public health-focused nonprofit Global Health Corps. She went to Yale before earning a Master in Public Administration from Harvard.

The twins are still a team and have co-authored several books together, including Sisters First: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life and The Superpower Sisterhood.

Patti Davis didn't grow up in the White House — she was 28 years old when her father, Ronald Reagan, was sworn in as President in 1981 — but she has borne the public spotlight as first daughter. Born in Los Angeles on October 21, 1952, she was an actress, activist and novelist who didn't shy away from life in the public eye, hitting glamorous red carpets and dating celebrities like Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon and actor Timothy Hutton. 

While her dad was a conservative icon, Patti was a rebel — in 1994 she made headlines after posing for Playboy with a full frontal pictorial.

Her father's life marked her in many ways, particularly the assassination attempt on his life and his battle with Alzheimer's. The latter led her to launch Beyond Alzheimer's, a support group for families and caregivers of people with dementia, at UCLA. "I decided when I started these groups . . . that I have to be willing to be intimate as well about what I’ve gone through," she told the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. She added: "The loss of a loved one to Alzheimer’s is an always evolving thing… You learn about acceptance, you learn about patience, you learn about living in the moment which is a really powerful thing to learn. The things that you learn, if you allow yourself, are things that serve you well in life."

The attempt on her father's life in 1981 also left its mark — something she was reminded of after the 2024 attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. She wrote of her feelings in a New York Times opinion piece entitled, "A Shooting Changes a Family. And It Can Change a Nation," saying these incidents can remind you "of your fragility as a human being." 

"You are reminded that time is precious and it’s imperative to use its gift in the most meaningful way you can," she said, later adding: "Having a loved one shot changes you, regardless of whether that loved one is famous. It unravels you in the first horrible, chaotic moments, and it rearranges you in the days and years afterward."

The youngest child of four, and the only daughter of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, Amy Carter was just nine years old when she became the first young child to live at the White House since John F. Kennedy Jr. and Caroline Kennedy in the early 1960s. 

Born in Plains, Georgia, in 1967, after moving to Washington DC for her father's presidency, Amy attended public school in the capital city. Once her dad left office, she became an activist while studying at Brown University and the Memphis College of Art. During the 1980s she was arrested multiple times protesting against such issues as apartheid in South Africa and CIA campus recruitment.  

Despite her high profile in the media, she stepped back completely from the spotlight to raise a family, although she continues to support human rights causes and she also serves on the counselor board of the Carter Center. In one of her rare public appearances, in 2023 she read a 75-year-old love letter written by her father, to her mom Rosalynn, during the former first lady's memorial service. She briefly ventured into the spotlight again to pay tribute to her father alongside her family at Carter's funeral service in January 2025.