Former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama were once the toast of D.C. and the Democratic Party.
But after months of rumors and speculation that the couple’s marriage is on the rocks, sparked by Michelle’s notable absences from both the late Jimmy Carter’s funeral and Donald Trump’s inauguration, a bombshell on the Obama’s future was just released courtesy of Michelle herself.
During an appearance on NPR’s “Wild Card” podcast yesterday, the former first lady told host Rachel Martin that thoughts of the end of her marriage pop up daily.
While addressing speculation about marital discord with Barack, Michelle said the public isn’t going to know what the couple is doing “every minute of the day.”
“Even in this phase in our lives, when Barack and I say something, right or wrong, it does get covered,” Obama told Martin.
Michelle then quipped that this non-stop visibility of their marriage creates thoughts of the “end.”
“The fact that people don’t see me going out on a date with my husband sparks rumors of the end of our marriage,” Obama said of tabloid reports of trouble in the relationship between the former first couple, who tied the knot in 1992.
“It’s the apocalypse,” Martin said with a laugh in response.
“It’s the apocalypse,” Obama said.
Take a listen —
“So we don’t Instagram every minute of our lives — we are 60,” said Michelle.
“You just are not going to know what we’re doing every minute of the day, you know?” added Obama.
“And yes, I guess we’re famous, but we’re 60,” Obama relented.
“We don’t take selfies,” she said.
It’s not the first time Obama has weighed in on chatter about her more than 30-year marriage with Barack, which rumors began to fly following her absence at President Trump’s inauguration in January.
Michelle Obama even made eyebrow-raising comments about being “single” on a recent episode of her podcast “IMO”, which she co-hosts with her brother Craig Robinson.
During her conversation with Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky she made “flirty remarks” about her dreams of being a single woman that caught listeners’ attention.
During the conversation about Chesky’s popular Airbnb offering at his own house, Obama said she would be interested in staying the night together at his home… without her husband.
“I have to say, Brian, if I’m a single girl out there, and I find out that Brian Chesky is single, and I can, like, stay in his house, have you ever -” Obama said before her brother and co-host Craig Robinson interrupted her.
“Here she goes, right to the relationship. Brian, you don’t have to feel pressure,” Robinson said, cutting off his sister mid-sentence.
Listen for yourself —
Despite dismissing divorce rumors, Michelle has acknowledged that marriage requires serious work, but said she wasn’t ready to “quit it.”
“I wouldn’t trade it,” she said, calling Barack Obama “as the young people say… my person.”
“The beauty of my husband and our partnership is that neither one of us was ever really, ever going to quit at it, because that’s not who we are. And I know that about him. He knows that about me,” she explained.
“I talk about these things because I think that people give up too quickly on marriage,” she said.
“Because there is so much friction built into the equation. And if you’re not getting help, talking about it, going to therapy, just understanding how things are changing — how you continuously renegotiate your relationship with your partner? I just see people quitting.”
She concluded by acknowledging the difficulty of marriage: “Because they look at me and Barack and go, ‘#couple goals.’ And I’m like, it’s hard.”