Michelle Obama Finally Addresses Barack Divorce Rumors Amid Claims They ‘Live Separate Lives’
Michelle Obama is holding her head high. The former first lady has had constant divorce rumors circulating around her marriage with Barack Obama, and she finally addressed it in a podcast interview with Sophia Bush.
The rumors started to circulate when Michelle was absent from President Donald Trump’s inauguration and President Jimmy Carter’s funeral when her husband attended. When the actress asked how life is for the Becoming author, she responded on Work in Progress, “It is whatever I want, Sophia, It’s whatever I want. It’s the first time in my life all of my choices are for me.” Michelle noted that in her time at the White House she would make excuses to not make choices like “I have to make sure the girls are okay, or my husband’s president, so I can’t do that.”
Related: Michelle Obama Just Hinted at ‘Challenges’ in Her Life Amid Barack Divorce Rumors
“Now, you know, I can’t blame my decisions and indecisions on anyone other than me,” Michelle said, adding, “I think if I’m honest with myself, I could have made a lot of these decisions years ago. But I didn’t give myself that freedom.”
Amid the life-changing revelation, she took time to address gossip that was circulating around their family. “That’s the thing that we as women struggle with — disappointing people. I mean, so much so that this year people couldn’t even fathom that I was making a choice for myself. That they had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing.”
“This couldn’t be a grown woman just making a set of decisions herself, right? But that’s what society does to us,” she continued. “We start actually going, what am I? What am I doing? What am I doing this for? And if it doesn’t fit into the sort of stereotype of what people think we should do, then it gets labeled as something negative and horrible.”
Recently on April 3, 2025, Barack confessed at a talk at Hamilton College that he’s in “a deep deficit with my wife.” He also added that stress affected their marriage and “it sure helps to be out of the White House.” To even out their relationship, he revealed that the he’s trying to “dig myself out of that hole by doing occasionally fun things.”
On the first episode of her podcast IMO, Michelle talked about how she handled life in the public eye as a first lady and after her husband’s two terms. “People always ask me and Barack, how did we stay hopeful in, not just the eight years that we were in the White House, but beyond?” she said. “Because, let me tell you, there was a lot of negative energy flipping our way—a lot of rumors, a lot of gossip, a lot of, you know, my husband wasn’t born in this country…we weren’t patriotic, he didn’t get into Harvard.”
An insider told InTouch Weekly that the two have been dealing with their struggles privately. “They’ve been married for three decades and don’t need to be on top of each other 24/7,” the insider explained and revealed that they have a couple’s therapist.
Michelle previously explained that the past year has been a “rough year,” because of her mother’s passing. “So, she simply chose to stay out of the spotlight for a while,” the insider said. “It hasn’t helped that she’s been under a lot of pressure to be more outspoken on current events, but she’s never liked politics — that’s Barack’s thing.”
