Former First Lady Michelle Obama made eyebrow-raising comments about being single during a Wednesday podcast episode, fueling ongoing speculation about a divorce from former President Barack Obama.
Obama appeared on her IMO podcast with Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky when 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.
Chesky, 43, deflected by joking about the Obama family’s matchmaking efforts.
“Her and her husband have tried to set me up before,” he said during the podcast.
Obama, 61, responded by saying she was “very invested in Brian’s love life.” She also told Chesky, “If I had a son, I would want my son to be Brian” and wanted to pretend they were alone at dinner together.
“I usually don’t get to talk to you in an interview format, so let’s pretend like it’s just us at dinner somewhere with me, poking you and prodding you on how life is,” she said.
Take a listen for yourself —
Social media users quickly seized on Obama’s comments as further signs of marital trouble.
“I think she is at one step to be single, what is going on with her?” one user wrote.
Another wrote —
She’s dropping divorce hints like breadcrumbs
— Koala (@kohAHluh) May 21, 2025
The podcast comments come amid persistent rumors about the Obama marriage, sparked by Michelle’s notable absences from her husband’s side at every recent high-profile event, including President Donald Trump’s inauguration and former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral.
Former President Obama added fuel to speculation last month when he remarked that he is in a “deep deficit with my wife” and hasn’t spent time with her recently.
Michelle has also publicly shared growing frustrations about her husband, including his former habit of being late and his lack of deep conversations with his golf friends.
Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson recently told podcaster Megyn Kelly that the former First Lady “really dislikes her husband and it’s super obvious.”
“I’m not just saying that to be catty… I think I’m trying to feel compassion for her but her hostility toward the guy is unbelievable,” Carlson said on The Megyn Kelly Show. He added that “there’s nothing more destabilizing than an unhappy marriage.”
Kelly agreed with Carlson’s assessment, saying “everything Michelle says about her husband is negative.” She contrasted this with her own marriage, saying, “I almost never say negative things about Doug. He’s not perfect but when I think about him, I don’t immediately go to whatever is negative. I go to what’s positive and what I love about him.”
Michelle directly denied the divorce rumors during an earlier podcast appearance this month with entrepreneur Steven Bartlett.
“Let me tell you, he would know it. And everybody would know it,” Obama said, pointing to her brother. “If I were having problems with my husband, everybody would know about it.”
Robinson supported his sister’s denial, saying, “If they were having a problem, I’d be doing a podcast with him.”
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.”