In a largely overlooked interview from 2004, Michelle Obama's mother, Marion Robinson, admitted that she was initially "a little bit" worried about her daughter marrying a biracial man.

Citing potential complications due to cultural differences, Robinson told the interviewer that Barack's mixed racial heritage troubled her a little, but not as much as it would have had he been "completely white."

"That didn’t concern me as much as had he been completely white,” Robinson laughed. "I guess that I worry about races mixing because of the difficulty—not for, so much for prejudice or anything. It’s just very hard."

The comments came in a 2004 interview with WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight” during Obama's campaign for the U.S. Senate. As the NY Daily News explains, the video was unearthed by Michelle Obama biographer Peter Slevin as part of his research for a book, Michelle Obama: A Life, due out next month.

Slevin's book makes clear that any initial worries she might have had over cultural differences did not get in the way of her opposing their marriage. “Marian, no pushover, was favorably impressed with Barack,” Slevin wrote.