Barack and Michelle Obama stepped out in style out for a date night in New York City, putting on a united front after months of swirling divorce speculation.
The former president and first lady were snapped leaving the upscale New York City Lowell Hotel restaurant surrounded by a Secret Service entourage as they slipped into a black SUV on Tuesday night.
Michelle Obama, 61, wore a long black ruffled dress, paired with strappy heels, statement earrings, and a black clutch. She wore her hair pulled back in a bun. The former president also suited up for the occasion in all black.
The outing follows months of speculation about troubles in their marriage.
Rumors swirled about the state of the Obamas’ marriage when Barack Obama attended former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral and President Donald Trump’s inauguration without his wife.
The former first lady broke her silence on the chatter during an appearance on Sophia Bush’s Work in Progress podcast, which aired in April.
She explained that since leaving the White House in 2017—and with daughters Malia, 26, and Sasha, 23, now grown and out of the house—she has been intentionally carving out time for herself. That newfound independence, she said, likely sparked the speculation.
“I want to know what your life and your social life looks like right now,” Bush asked.
“It is whatever I want, Sophia, It’s whatever I want,” Obama replied. “It’s the first time in my life all of my choices are for me.”
Reflecting on her time as first lady from 2009 to 2017, she added, “I didn’t give myself that freedom.”
“That’s the thing that we as women struggle with—disappointing people. 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,” Obama said.
“This couldn’t be a grown woman just making a set of decisions herself, right? But that’s what society does to us,” she went on. “We start actually going, what am I? What am I doing? What am I doing this for? And if it doesn’t fit into the sort of stereotype of what people think we should do, then it gets labeled as something negative and horrible.”
Michelle Obama was also a guest earlier this month on Steven Bartlett’s The Diary of a CEO podcast, where she sought to set the record straight.
“If I were having problems with my husband, everybody would know about it,” she said, calling Barack Obama “my person.”
“I’m not a martyr, I’m not,” she continued. “I would be problem-solving in public, and be like, ‘Let me tell you what [Barack] did.”
She said being married is “hard,” but she “wouldn’t trade it.”
“I talk about these things because I think that people give up too quickly on marriage,” the former first lady added.
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