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The Breakfast Club
The Good Bad and Ugly ( Michelle Obama Speaks On Her Kids Earning Their Stripes and Diddy Update Trials)
00:17:25
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- [00:00]
Lauren LaRosa
This is an I heart podcast. I'm the homegirl that knows a little bit about everything and every Bond exclusive. Not gonna lie about that. Right? Lauren came in hot. Hey, guys, it's Lauren LaRosa. And this is the latest with Lauren LaRosa. Now I'm your host, Lauren LaRosa, and we are here for another episode, Lowriders. I appreciate you guys for joining me. Welcome on back. Welcome on back. If you cannot tell already, I am energized today. Y' all know we do the behind the scenes of the grind. Behind the scenes of the, you know, the grind. Little check in that we do here. Not little, cuz everything is big this season. Back on the grind. I am feeling rejuvenated. I am excited to be here with you guys for another episode and just excited for the place that I'm in in my life. Good, bad, ugly, and indifferent. And the reason why I say this is because I think this week and these last couple weeks for me have been, I've been learning in real time how to balance, like, schedule. And I think when people talk about that and the skill to be able to plan and schedule, they don't give it up for the girls who know how to do it enough. Okay? Because I religiously am not the planner of the friend group in the family. Even though, you know, oldest daughters in the family somehow become the family manager. The long term planning and things of that nature are not my specialty. I'm really well at executing almost kind of in crisis or crisis, like last minute, on the spot making decisions. Boom, boom, boom, let's get it. Finding a solution. But what I'm learning so much more about when juggling so many different things now is the beauty and the necessity of long term planning and scheduling and, you know, just organization and having a time and place for preparation and, you know, your thoughts and, you know, a time for work where you're all the way locked in. A time for play, time to say no to play, a time to say no to work, those type of things. So grateful to be experiencing that at this point in my journey because I feel like, you know, it's. I'm, you know, I'm really, really spiritual and I. I've been telling myself as I've been praying about some of the different, you know, walls and different things I've been coming up against. I've been asking God to guide me through them, but I've also been saying to God, okay, God, I hear you. Okay, God, I hear you. Okay, God, I hear you. Because this is not My first time having, like, an inner conversation with myself about proper planning, preparation, taking the time, not burning yourself out, prioritizing what's important versus what's not. But I think in real time, I'm having to make those decisions or else. And yesterday I literally said that prayer to God, like, God, I hear you. I understand what you're saying to me, and I'm going to do it. And I. I did a lot of things yesterday. I prepped for, you know, my segment the day before for the Breakfast Club, which I normally had done, but I've been so exhausted just doing this trial thing. And now we have the podcast and no excuses, more so just a growth thing. Growing into places and spaces where I can't operate like the woman I was before I got to those places has been my testimony lately. So, you know, today as I arrive here on the podcast, that's where I'm at, and that's how I'm feeling. Um, and I know a lot of you guys can probably, you know, everybody goes through different changes in their life and different elements and different elevation points of your life require a different version of you. So that is where I'm at today, currently. But let's get on into the latest, because if we're talking about elevation and, you know, growth, we gotta talk about one of the most historically famous families in our nation's history, the. The Obama family. Because Michelle Obama has recently come out and made her comments for the first time about her daughter, Malia. Malia Obama, dropping her last name. So there have been reports that came out that Malia Obama used her middle name, Ann. So Malia Ann, as her last name for credits of a short film that she wrote and directed. The short film is called the Heart. This short film aired at the Sundance Festival in 2024. And when the news broke, people were like, oh, wait, hold on. But I instantly understood what that was. I knew. I'm like, okay, these are girls who've been under this microscope because, you know, their dad was the first black president of the United States, and their mother, as the first lady of the United States, did some amazing things for our nation. But she was highly criticized as a black woman in the. In the White House. So, of course, their lives have been not without scrutiny as well. And these are young girls growing into women in front of our eyes, finding their own way, and I'm sure wanted to make their own way. So I had already kind of put two and two together and knew that that's probably what it was. But Michelle Obama came And cleared it up for us. And here is what she said on an episode of a podcast called Sibling Rivalry. Let's take a listen.
- [05:05]
Michelle Obama
Our daughters are 25 and 23. They are young adult women, but they definitely went through a period in their teen years where it was the push away. You know, we want to. You know, I mean, they're still doing that as. And you guys know, this is the children of parents who are known. You know, you're trying to distinguish yourself. I mean, it is very important for my kids to feel like they've earned what they are getting in the world. And they don't want people to assume that they don't work hard, that they're just naturally just handed things. They're very sensitive to that. They want to be their own people. You know, Malia, who started in film, I mean, her first project, she took off her last name, and we were like, they're still going to know it's you, Malia. You know, but we respected the fact that, you know, she's trying to make her way. But now, as they're older, I think they. They are embracing our parenting principles. They, you know, they. They. They have a clearer understanding of why we did a lot of what we did.
- [06:19]
Lauren LaRosa
Now, I love that because, number one, I think that there's always this conversation amongst black families and about black families on nepotism, and I love the black nepotism conversation because I feel like whenever we get to have that black nepotism conversation, we get to argue about why if we worked hard and we earned the money, our kids get to get the silver spot. But I also think that, for me, playing devil's advocate, I think that it would have been a beautiful thing to see Malia Obama. Put Malia Obama in the credits. I think it would have been a beautiful thing for her to say, hey, my dad is Barack Obama. My mom is Michelle Obama. I want to get in the film. Dad, mom, who can you call? Because I think that that is what the generational wealth of being people, not even black people, and I'm speaking to that because I'm a black woman, but people in general, Red, white, or blue. The whole point in, you know, breaking down these barriers and breaking glass ceilings and walking through these doors and sitting at these tables or building your own table is so that a person behind you doesn't have to fight or break through or build or carry the weight of doing so many of these different things in the way that you have to. And I, you know, for me, when it comes to black children, Especially in, like, creative spaces and, you know, artsy spaces. It's always about, like, I want to claim my own right because, you know, your art is your art, and that's what you're trying to protect. But I love when I see what LeBron and, you know, Bronny Jr are doing. It's like, I'm here. I'm talented. I deserve to be here. And I could have worked to get be here, and I did work to be here. But at the same time, my dad is LeBron James. But I love that Michelle Obama and Barack Obama give their daughters, from what it seems like on the outside looking in that space, to be their own people to, you know, wedge their own, you know, sword in society. But they're honest with them. They're like, look, no matter what you call yourself, Malia, they gonna know it's you, baby. Like, we are who we are at this point, but they still allow her to go through life and understand that and experience that on their own. Something about that Obama family that just makes me, you know, like, I wanna strive to have that regalness and that love and instill that in my children with my husband. I look at the Obamas as that. And Michelle Obama just announced her book that will go on sale November 4, 2025. It's called the Look. She says, during our family's time in the White House, the way I looked was constantly being discussed and dissected. What I wore, how my hair was styled. For a while now, I've been wanting to reclaim more of that story, to share it in my own way. I'm thankful to be at a stage in life where I feel comfortable expressing myself freely, wearing what I love and doing what I love feels true to me, and I'm excited to share some of what I've learned along the way. My new book, the look, comes out on November 4th. It's a reflection on my lifelong journey with fashion, hair and beauty. I am really excited about that as a woman, a black woman in a very public space that, you know, I've been criticized for my outfits, whether they're too seductive or not in my personal time or, you know, my hair on camera, my makeup on camera is, you know, it's the small things. And I think all women get it. But I do think, you know, speaking from the perspective of a black woman, just like a lot of other things, there is the feeling of I can't not get that right. Hair has to be laid. Beauty has to be on point. Outfits have to be very aware and cognizant of the room that I'm walking into because I might not get another chance to show up in this way. So excited to hear what, you know, what she's teaching through this book because Michelle Obama got, man, what I deal with a little bit on social media ain't nothing compared with to our first lady, Michelle Obama and what she experienced while being in the White House. So definitely will be on the lookout for that. But I want to also then pivot in the latest because you guys know that we've been keeping you up to date on the trial here in New York where Sean Combs Diddy is on trial for a plethora of things. There's counts of trafficking, you know, all of these things. And I've been going to the courthouse daily. And now I've decided that I will go, of course, and keep up with what is going on in the court, whether I'm there or not, through transcripts and court reporters. But I do want to make sure that the days when you guys see me there, because I do have dual triple roles, like I'm here on the podcast with y' all and the Lowriders. We, you know, at the Breakfast Club, we in court. It's a lot to figure out. Prioritizing. I told y' all in the beginning of this has been a thing that I've had to learn because of the voice and the, you know, the different, different areas that all this coverage has, has been able to, you know, place me. And I'm so grateful for that, but I want to make sure it's effective. So not every day am I at the actual court, but y' all gonna still hear me. Y' all gonna hear me, though. So yesterday in court, there was a woman who testified. Her name is Brianna Bana Bungalon. Now, this woman, Cassie, had spoke a lot about her in her testimony and talked about, you know, they were really close friends. She was actually a designer as well a fashion designer, friends with Cassie. And she experienced a very, allegedly a very violent and physical interaction with Diddy, you know, while Cassie was present, that Cassie spoke to. And now she is on the stand telling her story herself this week. So she alleged that Diddy held her on a 17 story balcony back in September of 2016. And she testified that Diddy threw her on the balcony furniture. She alleged that she was left with a bruise on the back of her leg as well as neck and back pain. And that Diddy said to her, allegedly, in the midst of all of this, in the midst of all this rage, that He's a devil and he could kill her. And that was on a whole different occasion. So you have the balcony incident, then you have the whole, I'm the devil, I could kill you, that whole incident. And what she is speaking to is an incident where Diddy basically, basically came into the, into Cassie's home. And the way that, you know, the prosecutors or the government set it up when talking about this woman in that experience was that Diddy was at a point allegedly where he was trying to keep Cassie from drug abuse and different friend groups. And, you know, she was just, she was, she was spiraling. Uh, the, the government alleges that they were both using drugs and they were both doing these different things, but that actually Cassie had begun to utilize drugs and do different things a bit too much. And he was trying to almost like safeguard her. Cassie and Ms. Brianna tell a whole different story. They talk about this, and this was day 16 of the trial. They talk about this as, you know, him coming in, you know, an alleged drunken rage and just being upset about things that were not in Breonna's control whatsoever. And she also talked about not even wanting to meet Diddy at one point when Cassie was trying to introduce them because she didn't like some of the things that she had been, you know, just seeing from kind of like a third eye view. But she did. Bonna is what they call her, Cassie's friend that took the stand. She did talk about them, you know, being on drugs that, you know, within that incident, her and Cassie, she alleged. And the Diddy's defense team came in and tried to, you know, poke holes in her story because she couldn't remember a lot of things. She couldn't remember where she told the government that the incident took place at. She couldn't remember what drug she told them that she was on. But two, I mean, if you're the government, it's like, okay, of course she's telling you that they were on drugs. She just can't remember all of the drugs. And it wasn't maybe as much as you guys are depicting. Right. Cassie came prior to this and had a very in depth conversation about how extensive her drug use was, having to go to rehab, doing drugs with her friend Bonna, who we are now hearing from. Cassie herself said there's a whole year she talked about it. She said, you know, 2017 is basically a blur because of the drugs that she was doing. So I don't know how effective this is on a jury to, you know, for the prosecutors to present this information. That way where it's like, okay, he's in this rage. He comes in, a person is physically harmed. They're scared. There's a whole night wife fight that breaks out, allegedly at some point between Diddy and Cassie as well. And this was like a normal thing that they, you know, allegedly used to just do, because this is, you know, allegedly Cassie fighting back against the rage and just how Diddy would handle things. But there's all these things, right? Like, I'm saying all that briefly. And if you guys can't tell by now, I feel like yesterday's testimony. It's testimony, and it was there, but it's not the subject we're gonna spend a lot of time on. There are all these big salacious things, right? There's knives, there's I'm the devil. There's threats to, you know, allegedly threats to kill someone. And then you also have to enter the fact that, you know, on all parties involved, there was conversation prior to this woman taking a stand of all of this drug use, which was confirmed by Malta, including Cassie herself, which was confirmed by multiple people. So it's like, how do you, as Diddy's team, effectively make a juror think that this witness is not credible? How, when you've heard over and over and over prior to her getting on the stand, that a lot of people don't remember some things because of the drugs that they were doing or the trauma that they experienced. That's been my biggest question here. And I think that's why the government hasn't rested their case yet, is because I think they want. I mean, they. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, right. Is their goal, but they're trying to fill in color in every little blank inch that they can, because that is what they have to do. Or this might not be a win for them. Because if I'm a juror, I'm thinking about it like, okay, yet that happened, right? Like, Diddy's team is alleging this woman, that he came into this rage and came at, you know, this bona woman the way he did because he was protecting Cassie from. From drug use and these things. But at the same time, everything else that we've seen physically from, you know, Diddy, that has been alleged. And, you know, just the power, the influence, the anger, all of these things has been so big, and we've heard it from so many different angles. How do you fight against that? I keep saying it. I really keep saying it, because I think that that's when, you know, we'll kind of get answers to a lot of these questions or not, and really know where the, you know, the verdict in this case is going to go. But I'm really interested to see what Diddy's defense is going to be to all these things. And we've seen some of it, right, like the angling of, you know, how they position their questioning when they cross examine the witnesses and things of that nature. This is an I Heart podcast.