The man who took first lady Michelle Obama to her high school prom in Chicago says he knew back then she was special.

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"Michelle knew what she wanted, and after graduation she was off to Princeton," said David Upchurch. "I wished the best for Michelle because she's always been a wonderful person."

Upchurch grew up in Chicago with Obama, then Michelle Robinson, and in 1982 took her to the prom at Whitney M. Young High School, Enquirer magazine reported Saturday. That was seven years before she met her future husband and current president, Barack Obama, at the Sidley Austin law firm in Chicago where they both were corporate lawyers.

Upchurch, now a customer service representative and divorced father of three living in Colorado Springs, Colo., said his romance with her went nowhere because he was "a screw-up, plain and simple," he told the Enquirer.

"Michelle and I really liked each other, but you know how some high school boys are," Upchurch said, noting he just didn't take his life or his future seriously back then.