Regina King revealed that her late son was friends with former First Lady Michelle Obama’s daughters.
During an appearance on Obama’s “IMO” podcast, King shared that she was unaware that her son Ian knew Malia and Sasha.
”I wanna say publicly, to Malia and Sasha, for being great friends of Ian’s,” King said. “You know, we didn’t know they were friends. Ian’s just cooking dinner, telling me he’s cooking dinner for Sasha…so I’m just thinking it’s some girl named Sasha.”
”Which it was!” Obama’s co-host Craig Robinson said.
“And so this feels like a…it’s beautiful to be able to be sharing a bottle of Ian’s wine with you,” King continued.
King also spoke about the wine she created as a tribute to her Ian. Named MianU, pronounced “me and you,” King said that “creat[ing] new memories with Ian.”
“Ian would introduce me to so many things,” King said. “And one thing—and Malia and Sasha will tell you this—when Ian discovers something, he wants to share it. And he wants to share it, and he wants to tell you all about it. [So] it kind of came to me that Ian, we’re gonna make a wine.”
King shared Ian with her ex-husband, Ian Alexander Sr. In January 2022, Ian passed away by suicide.
King Still Reads Her Son’s Journals
During an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, King spoke about her grief journey.
“One of the most beautiful things about Ian is that he loved to discover. Then introduce you to what he discovered. Ian’s an artist. I always speak about him in the present, because he’s still here,” King said. “And so it is celebrating all of that brilliance, the creativity, the power of connection, the energy that he brings into the room every time he’s there. For me, it is very important that Ian’s name is always continued to be said.”