“There is my good friend, Oprah,” Obama said. “Who very early on, when I was still running, just decided that she would support this guy with a name that nobody could pronounce.”

Both Obama and Winfrey call Chicago their hometown.

More than three years after his historic election, Obama said that Winfrey is still “somebody who Michelle and I seek out in thinking about not just the day-to-day issues of the day, but trying to keep our focus on the big picture.”