Obama's cocaine use revealed in new biography

The extent of former US President Barack Obama's use of cocaine has been revealed in a newly-published biography.

The 1078-page book, Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama, includes details of Mr Obama's "passionate" skills in bed, as well as his use of drugs with his partners.

It alleges Mr Obama contemplated a gay relationship at college, and says his relationship with a former girlfriend overlapped with his courtship to Michelle Robinson, who later became his wife.

It was written by Pulitzer prize-winning biographer David Garrow, one of the first and most comprehensive to be published since Mr Obama left office.

A number of relationships are covered in the book.

Mr Obama met a former girlfriend, Genevieve Cook, when he was 22. He then invited her back to his apartment, where they slept together on their first date.

"We went and talked in his bedroom. And then I spent the night. It all felt very inevitable," Ms Cook wrote in a private memoir, which was released to Mr Garrow.

"Sexually he really wasn't very imaginative but he was comfortable. He was no kind of shrinking 'can't handle it. This is invasive' or 'I'm timid' in any way; he was quite earthy," she told him.

"Making love with Barack, so warm and flowing and soft but deep - relaxed and loving - opening up more," she also wrote.

The couple used cocaine together, as well as cannabis. Mr Obama has already admitted using cocaine as a teenager.

With Ms Cook's memoir, the biography also includes a poem she wrote at the time.

"B. That's for you. F's for all the f***ing that we do," it said.

The couple split up after a year and a half together, and Mr Obama dated several women before meeting the now-Ms Obama.

Christopher Andersen, who wrote Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage, says Mr Obama dated Michelle Obama for political reasons.

"He felt that would be an important part of the puzzle," Mr Anderson says.

"He would never have gotten close to the White House if it weren't for her."

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