Michelle Obama addresses divorce rumors — and why she’s rarely seen with Barack
By Anthony Blair
Michelle Obama has again tried to shut down long-running rumors of trouble in her marriage to former President Barack Obama — claiming the only reason they’re rarely photographed together is that they’re too old for Instagram.
“The fact that people don’t see me going out on a date with my husband sparks rumors of the end of our marriage,” the 61-year-old former first lady told NPR’s “Wild Card” podcast host Rachel Martin recently.
“It’s like, ‘OK, so we don’t Instagram every minute of our lives. We are 60. We’re 60, y’all,'” she said.
Michelle Obama in an interview, addressing divorce rumors.
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Michelle Obama has said she and Barack are “too old” for Instagram.
NPR
“You just are not gonna know what we’re doing every minute of the day.”
The former first lady said she willingly defied expectations by refusing to attend major events — including former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral and President Trump’s inauguration — and then had to “own it” when it sparked anger and further fueled the rumors of marital woes.
“One of the major decisions I made this year was to stay put and not attend funerals and inaugurations and all the things that I’m supposed to attend,” she said.
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“That was a part of me using my ambition to say, ‘Let me define what I want to do, apart from what I’m supposed to do, what the world expects of me.’ And I have to own that. Those are my choices,” she said, admitting that there had been blowback to her decisions to stay away.
“Whatever the backlash was, I had to sit in it and own it. But I didn’t regret it, you know? It’s my life now, and I can say that, now,” she added.
Obama has opened up about her family and marriage issues on her own podcast, “IMO,” which she hosts with her brother, Craig Robinson.
Barack and Michelle Obama at the US Open.
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Obama said the reason she and Barack aren’t pictured together so much is because they’re 60.
GC Images
She also revealed that she felt she had to “cut” her ambitions as a working mom and first lady.
“As a working mother, I — you know, I think all of that stuff, it kind of cut my ambitions short a little bit. Because I had to make a set of decisions: ‘OK, my husband’s over here, I’ve got these kids over here. I don’t know if I can afford to be ambitious right now. So I have to take a step back,'” she said.
Obama has addressed the speculation regarding her marriage in the past, saying categorically that, if they were true, she wouldn’t stay quiet.
Michelle Obama in interview.
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She sat down for NPR’s “Wild Card” podcast.
NPR
“If I were having problems with my husband, everybody would know about it. My brother would know it. I’d be problem-solving in public. I’m not a martyr,” she told “The Diary of a CEO” podcast host Steven Bartlett last month.
As rumors of the couple’s divorce swirled, the Obamas went on a very public date at the swanky Lowell Hotel restaurant in Midtown Manhattan last month and were seen getting cozy on another restaurant date in Washington, DC, in April.
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