Former First Lady Michelle Obama has finally broken silence on divorce rumours and marital troubles.
According to CNN, Michelle, who is married to the first African-American president, Barack Obama, for 32 years, has set the record straight on the divorce rumours and absence from the political events.
In a podcast released on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, the mother of two told the host and actress Sophia Bush that eight years after leaving the White House with two adult children, she finally got the freedom to control her own calendar and make choices for herself.
She said in the Work in Progress podcast, “I could have made a lot of these decisions years ago, but I didn’t give myself that freedom. Maybe even as much as I let my kids live their own lives, I use their lives as an excuse for why I couldn’t do something.”
"And now that’s gone. I get to look at my calendar, which I did this year; it was a real big example of me, myself, looking at something that I was supposed to do... and I chose to do what was best for me, not what I had to do, not what I thought other people wanted me to do,” she added.
Speaking about the divorce rumours, she asserted that her recent choices of stepping away from certain public events and responsibilities have raised rumours that she is splitting with her long-time husband.
The 61-year-old said, “I think we (women) struggle with, like, disappointing people. I mean, so much so that this year people were, you know, they couldn’t even fathom that I was making a choice for myself that they had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing.”
Former First Lady in her book Becoming also revealed that Obama’s time in the Oval Office with his political ambitions was tough on their marriage, which resulted in loneliness and exhaustion.
Notably, Michelle missed President Donald Trump's second inauguration and the state funeral of former President Jimmy Carter in January 2025.
