The hosts of The View blasted the “vicious and false rumors” that the Obamas are divorcing Friday, even though their former co-host Meghan McCain claimed she heard it from “reputable people.”
The former president and first lady have been consistently plagued by the rumors of a divorce for months, to the point that Michelle Obama addressed the stories in a new interview on Sophia Bush’s Work in Progress podcast.
“That’s the thing that we as women struggle with—disappointing people,” Obama said Wednesday. “I mean, so much so that this year people couldn’t even fathom that I was making a choice for myself. That they had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing.”
The View hosts agreed Friday that the rumors are a waste of time. “I found it very tacky that this was a dialogue in the first place,” the show’s conservative host Alyssa Farah Griffin said. “I happen to follow them both on Instagram. They have a bunch of pictures posted together,” she added. The story “sort of feels like it was created out of thin air to entertain people.”
The hosts’ comments come after McCain, the show’s previous conservative host before she was replaced by Griffin, amplified the unfounded story on her podcast in January, claiming “very serious journalists” told her “they’re hearing that the Obama divorce rumors are true.” She offered no names or proof to support the claim, pointing only to Michelle’s lack of attendance at Jimmy Carter’s funeral or Donald Trump’s inauguration alongside her husband.
McCain seemingly revealed her wishful thinking on the subject when she added then, “If they break up it is going to be another—like a metaphorical last arrow in the heart of the Democratic brand.” She added, “I think it will symbolize just the absolute ending of an era for that party.”
The rumors caught fire when a debunked tabloid cover story from August 2024 claimed Barack Obama had an affair with Jennifer Aniston. The seed for the gossip seemed to have been planted in an old Economist satire piece from 2014—the only time the two names had ever been linked online together before then. Despite Aniston publicly refuting the claims and the Obamas appearing happy as ever together on their social media pages, the rumor has only garnered more staying power.
The View hosts pointed out Friday, however, that the so-called reasoning behind the rumors as of late—that the former first lady had skipped a few public appearances—is flimsy.
“You don’t have to go sit at a funeral for gazillion hours when you have other plans,” Ana Navarro said. “Let her live!”
Sunny Hostin added that Michelle “has been in the public eye a bit begrudgingly. She didn’t run for office. Her husband ran for office,” concluding, “I think we should leave her alone.”
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