Michelle Obama finally addresses divorce speculation

Jami Ganz, New York Daily News on Apr 9, 2025

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Michelle Obama has finally shut down speculation that she and former President Barack Obama are headed for divorce, while admitting her newfound independence has fueled the rumors.

When asked what her life looks like these days, the 61-year-old former first lady told Sophia Bush’s “Work in Progress” podcast that “it’s whatever I want.”

With politics in her family’s rearview mirror, the “Becoming” author said she now has “freedom” she didn’t previously afford herself when her husband was president, adding that for the first time in her life, “all of my choices are for me.”

“Now I get to look at my calendar, which I did this year … looking at something I was supposed to do — without naming names — and I chose to do what was best for me, not what I had to do,” she said in a seeming nod to skipping President Trump’s inauguration in January, though former President Obama attended.

“People couldn’t even fathom I was making a choice for myself,” she added. “They had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing, that this couldn’t be a grown woman just making a set of decisions for herself. … If it doesn’t fit into the stereotype of what people think we should do, then it gets labeled as something negative.”

The Emmy-nominated producer also attributed her new mindset to the death of her 86-year-old mother, Marian Robinson, in May of last year.

“I feel like it’s time for me to make some big girl decisions about my life and own it fully, because if not now, when?” she said.

Obama’s remarks follow her husband’s comments last week regarding the rumors on the state of their marriage.

When speaking to students at Hamilton College last Thursday, the ex-president admitted to being in “a deep deficit” with his wife following his two-term presidency.

“I have been trying to dig myself out of that hole by doing occasionally fun things,” he said.

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