Michelle Obama and Barack Obama have frequently fought for their marriage despite obstacles.
“There are so many natural reasons why marriage, infertility [and] trying to have kids makes things difficult,” Michelle, 61, said on the Thursday, May 1, episode of “The Diary of a CEO” podcast. “I try to tell couples, ‘Of course it’s hard. Just listen to what I said, like, if you’re having some issues in your marriage, it’s not you. It’s the process of marriage. It’s just all hard.’”
She added, “Guess what happens when it all works out? You know what you end up with? Babies … [who are] little people with their own sense of everything. They mess you up. You love them dearly, but they’re a hassle and they’re demanding and they have their own whims, and now they’re in your partnership. They are factored into everything.”
The former first lady and Barack, 63, have been married since 1992 after meeting a decade earlier during their early legal careers in Chicago. They welcomed daughters Malia and Sasha in 1998 and 2001, respectively. Seven years after Sasha was born, Barack was elected President of the United States. After two consecutive terms, Barack left the White House in 2016.
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Through the political highs and lows, Michelle and her husband have consistently put their relationship at the forefront.
“Even when everything works out and you got everything right, it’s still going to be hard because now you’re developing a life,” Michelle added on Thursday’s episode. “I think that people give up too quickly on marriage because there is so much friction built into the equation. If you’re not getting help, talking about it [and] going to therapy, just understanding how things are changing and how do you continuously renegotiate your relationship with your partner?”
She continued, “I just see people quitting because they look at me and Barack and go, ‘Hashtag couple goals.’ I’m like, ‘It’s hard for us too, but I wouldn’t trade it.’ He is, as the young people say, my person.”
According to Michelle, there has never been a “full moment” where she wanted to throw in the towel on her marriage. “The beauty of my husband and our partnership is that neither one of us was ever really going to quit at it ‘cause that’s not who we are,” she added. “I know that about him [and] he knows that about me.”
While Michelle and Barack put on a united front at home, the couple was subject to divorce speculation earlier this year when she opted against joining him at Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration.
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“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,” Michelle said on her “IMO” podcast earlier this month, denying the rumors. “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? 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 emphasized that it “took everything in [her] power” to say no to “the thing that was perceived as right” that wasn’t a fit with what she needed.
