Former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are addressing rumours about a divorce head-on in an episode of her podcast released Wednesday.
“She took me back!” Barack Obama said on the “IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson” podcast. “It was touch and go for a while.”
Speculation about the former first couple’s marriage has run rampant in recent months. Some of the rumours picked up steam after several public appearances where Michelle Obama did not join her husband, including President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.
“It’s so nice to have you both in the same room together,” said Robinson, who is Michelle Obama’s brother, to the couple. Michelle responded, “I know because when we aren’t, folks think we’re divorced.”
Robinson recounted a story when a woman at an airport approached him to ask about their marriage. “‘What did he do?’” Robinson said she asked him.
“These are the kinds of things that I just miss,” Barack Obama said. “So I don’t even know this stuff’s going on, and then somebody will mention it to me, and I’m like, what are you talking about?”
Michelle Obama continued saying, “There hasn’t been one moment in our marriage where I’ve thought about quitting on my man. And we’ve had some really hard times and we’ve had a lot of fun times, a lot of adventures, and I have become a better person because of the man I’m married to.”
The former first lady has previously addressed the speculation about her marriage and her decision not to attend Trump’s inauguration.
“My decision to skip the inauguration, what people don’t realise — or my decision to make choices at the beginning of this year that suited me were met with such ridicule and criticism,” she explained on an episode of her podcast earlier this year. “People couldn’t believe that I was saying no for any other reason than that they had to assume that my marriage was falling apart.”
The Obamas married in 1992 and have two daughters, Malia and Sasha.
Barack Obama warns about ‘what’s happening to boys’
The former president, who was raised by a single mother, shared why he believes he would’ve had more difficulty raising a son than daughters.
“I think I might have been more judgmental, harder,” he said. “I like to think I would’ve been more self-aware enough to combat that, but I just think father-son relationships, for me particularly, if I don’t have a dad around to show it to me, might’ve been more difficult.”
Both Obamas also reflected on how parents and communities need to focus on nurturing young men and acknowledged the political shift seen with that group.
Trump made inroads during the 2024 presidential election with appeals to younger men in particular, though he’s started to face criticism within the podcast “manosphere” since taking office.
“If you’re not thinking about what’s happening to boys and how they are being raised, then that can actually hurt women, and I would argue that some of the broad political trends we’ve seen not just in this country but around the world have to do with this sense of boys, men not feeling as if they are seen, feeling as if they count,” Barack Obama said.
He continued, “That then makes them more interested in appeals by folks who say, ‘You know what, the reason you don’t feel respected is because women have been doing this or this group has been doing this or that group’s been doing this.’ And that is not a healthy place to be.”
“We rightly have tried to invest in girls to make sure that there’s a level playing field and then they’re not barred from opportunities,” he added.
“But we haven’t been as willing, I think, to be intentional about investing in the boys, and that’s been a mistake.”
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