Michelle Obama Gives Her Side of the Story on Divorce Rumors

Former first lady Michelle Obama says her recent absences from political events that her husband attended solo is not a sign of trouble in their marriage.

She addressed the rumors surrounding her relationship with former President Barack Obama on today’s episode of actress Sophia Bush’s “Work in Progress” podcast via Page Six.

“The interesting thing is that when I say ‘no,’ for the most part, people are like, ‘I get it,’ and I’m OK,” Obama said, referring to her husband’s solo ventures.

“And that’s the thing that we as women struggle with — disappointing people,” she continued. “So much so that people, 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.”

Obama laughed at the notion that she couldn’t possibly be “a grown woman just making a set of decisions for herself.”

“But that’s what society does to us,” she added. “We actually finally start going, ‘What am I doing? Who 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.”

Obama, 61, said she feels it’s “time to make some big girl decisions” in her life and “own it fully.”

“If not now, when? What am I waiting for?” she said.

“Now is the time for me to start asking myself these hard questions of, ‘Who do I truly want to be every day?’ And that changes. So, who do I want to have a lunch with? How long do I want to stay in a place? Do I want to travel? If a girlfriend calls and says, ‘Let’s go here,’ I can say ‘Yes!’ I can. And I’m trying to do that more and more,” she said.

Obama noted that she ultimately chooses what’s best for her.

“Not what I had to do, not what other people wanted me to do, and between you and me, that was an important test for me just as a woman, as an independent person. Because, like all women, I operate from guilt,” she said.

Divorce rumors have swirled around the couple recently, based on President Obama attending President Trump’s inauguration and President Jimmy Carter’s funeral by himself.

Mrs. Obama said she was on vacation in Hawaii for Carter’s funeral, but didn’t attend the Trump event because she’s “no phony.”

Last year, she campaigned for Democratic presidential nominee, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost the election to Trump.