Michelle Obama is weighing in on speculation her marriage with husband and former President Barack Obama was on the rocks because she didn’t attend the inauguration.
“My decision to skip the inauguration, you know, 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. Like, 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?” Michelle, 61, said on the Wednesday, April 23, episode of the “IMO With Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson” podcast. “It’s like, while I’m here really trying to own my life and intentionally practice making the choice that was right for me.”
Michelle shared that it “took everything in my power” to not do “the thing that was perceived as right, but do the things that [were] right for me.” She noted that it was “a hard thing for me to do.”
“I had to basically trick myself out of it. And it started with not having anything to wear. I mean, I had affirmatively, ’cause I’m always prepared for any funeral, anything. I walk around with the right dress, I travel with clothes just in case something pops off,” she explained. “So I was like, if I’m not going to do this thing, I got to tell my team, I don’t even want to have a dress ready, right? Because it’s so easy to just say, Let me do the right thing.’”
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Taraji P. Henson, who appeared as a guest on the podcast, supported Michelle’s decision.
“But then you become a shock absorber, and that’s what women are, shock absorbers. And that’s exhausting, and it’s not healthy. It is not healthy, you’ve had to be shock absorbers for your husband, for your children, for your mom, for family, your loved ones, because of where you were sitting in the public eye,” Henson, 54, shared. “That’s not fair to you. When do you ever get to live for you? I applaud you. I’m happy that you are taking care of yourself in the way that you need to.”
Michelle’s candor comes weeks after she shut down rumors that she and Barack, 63, were headed for a divorce.
“I still care about girls’ education. The [presidential] library is opening in a year from now, [but there are] certain things I am and am not doing with the library,” Michelle said on an episode of Sophia Bush’s “Work in Progress” podcast. “But, the interesting thing is that when I say no [to a project], for the most part, people are like, ‘I get it,’ and I’m OK. That’s the thing that we as women struggle with — disappointing people.”
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She continued, “I mean, so much so that this year people were, 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. This couldn’t be a grown woman just making a set of decisions for herself. But, that’s what society does to us. We start actually finally going, ‘What am I doing? Who am I doing this for?’”
Michelle and Barack tied the knot in 1992 after crossing paths a decade earlier in Chicago. The couple welcomed daughters Malia and Sasha in 1998 and 2001, respectively. Barack served as president of the United States for two consecutive terms, leaving the White House in 2017.
