Michelle Obama wants to set the record straight: if her marriage to Barack were on the rocks, you’d already know.
The former first lady shot down rumors of marriage troubles during an appearance on The Diary of a CEO podcast Thursday.
“If I were having problems with my husband, everybody would know about it,” she said.
Talk of martial strife between her and the former president swirled after Barack attended both Jimmy Carter’s funeral and Donald Trump’s second inauguration alone.
Podcast host Steven Bartlett noted her absence had led some to think “there’s an issue with you and Barack, there’s a divorce coming,” a comment that prompted a hearty laugh from Michelle.
“Let me tell you—he would know it,” she said, pointing to her brother, Craig Robinson, who was also on the podcast. “And everybody would know it.”
“I’m not a martyr, I’m not,” Michelle continued. “I would be problem-solving in public, and be like, ‘Let me tell you what [Barack] did.”
Robinson jumped in, quipping, “If they were having a problem, I’d be doing a podcast with him.”
In a recent episode of her own podcast, IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson, Michelle explained that not attending the Trump inauguration was her making a choice that was right for herself, part of an effort to become comfortable saying “no.”
“People couldn’t believe that I was saying ‘no’ for any other reason that they had to assume that my marriage was falling apart,” she remarked.
Michelle has spoken candidly about the couple’s relationship struggles, revealing in a 2022 interview on Revolt TV, “There were 10 years where I couldn’t stand my husband.”
During Thursday’s podcast appearance, she again repeated that being married is “hard,” but said she “wouldn’t trade it.”
“I talk about these things because I think that people give up too quickly on marriage,” Michelle said.
Without communicating, going to therapy, and “continuously renegotiating” your relationship, she said, it’s easy for people to stop trying: “There is so much friction built into the equation.”
As for her 32-year marriage to Barack—whom she called “my person”—Michelle said neither of them ever seriously thought about walking away.
“That’s not who we are. And I know that about him. He knows that about me,” she said.
Still, there are things she would have done differently, especially during the years when Barack was rising as a political star while she focused on raising their daughters, Sasha and Malia.
“We were flying blind,” said the Becoming author, reflecting on Barack’s ascent to the presidency. “I didn’t know what that journey was going to be and what I would need to negotiate for myself.”
“I should have said that I needed his team to really, truly value that he had a family,” Michelle added. “I shouldn’t have just said, ‘Well, this is what it takes to get this done.’”
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