Younger Actor Addresses Report He Had an Affair With Michelle Obama Before Barack Divorce Rumors
The speculations about Michelle and Barack Obama’s marriage are old news at this point. It feels like every few months, there’s a report that their marriage is on the rocks and they might be divorcing. And then, nothing comes of it, and the two continue to be together and seemingly happy. Sometimes they joke about their relationship, but it all seems to be in good fun.
But sometimes the rumors about the supposed issues in the marriage involve someone else, and that means someone else has to come out to deny the allegations. Like actor Kumail Nanjiani, who had to go on the record to clarify that no, he did not have an affair with the former first lady.
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“There was a rumor going around about me last year that I was having an affair with Michelle Obama,” Nanjiani told Caleb Hearon on the So Truepodcast. “Our mutual friend pulled Emily [Gordon, his wife] aside and was like ‘Hey so I heard that Kumail and Michelle Obama are like doing it,’ She wasn’t even upset.”
Nanjiani seemed to consider the suggestion borderline hilarious, as you would if it were so far from reality. “Multiple people brought it up to me,” Nanjiani said. “I’ve never met Michelle Obama.” And okay, the rumor would probably be especially funny if you’ve never even met the person you’re supposedly having an affair with.
All of this comes after multiple months of reports about a broken marriage following Barack and Michelle Obama. The couple posted a family photo on social media for Christmas alongside their two daughters, so it seems like once again, things are just fine between them.
The confusion might be understandable, though, considering the jokes. Former President Obama spoke about his marriage while at a Jefferson Educational Society event in Erie, Pennsylvania, not so long ago, saying, “I have spent over eight years now trying to dig myself out of a hole with Michelle. And that’s been challenging, but I feel like I’m making progress. I’m almost breaking even at the moment.”
Sure, it reads like a joke, but for some, it might feel like reinforcing a narrative. And the lack of social media activity from the two is also something people scrutinize a lot. Michelle Obama, however, explained this very clearly during an episode of NPR’s Wild Card with Rachel Martin.
“It’s like, OK, so we don’t Instagram every minute of our lives,” she said. “We are 60. We’re 60, y’all. We just, you just are not gonna know what we’re doing every minute of the day, you know?”
Divorce rumors really intensified after Michelle Obama skipped Donald Trump’s inauguration. On her podcast, she explained, “My decision to skip the inauguration, what people don’t realize, or my decision to make choices at the beginning of this year that suited me, were met with such ridicule and criticism,” she said. “People couldn’t believe that I was saying no for any other reason, that they had to assume that my marriage was falling apart, you know.”
But once again, the answer to the question is that the former President and first lady are doing just fine. And no, Michelle Obama did not have an affair with Kumail Nanjiani.
