Michelle Obama addresses recent absences from political events and divorce rumours

Michelle Obama speaks on stage during IMO Live podcast 2025 SXSW Conference and Festival at Austin Convention Center on March 13 in Austin, Texas. (Marcus Ingram/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

Former first lady Michelle Obama discussed stepping back and making time for herself on a podcast released Tuesday, addressing her recent absences from political events and rumours of marital troubles.

Speaking of her life eight years out of the White House with two adult children, Obama said on the “Work in Progress” podcast with actress Sophia Bush that she now has the opportunity to control her own calendar and can now make “a choice for myself.”

“I could have made a lot of these decisions years ago, but I didn’t give myself that freedom,” Obama said, “Maybe even as much as I let my kids live their own lives, I use their lives as an excuse for why I couldn’t do something.”

She continued: “And now that’s gone. And so now I have to look at my — I get to look at my calendar, which I did this year, was a real big example of me, myself looking at something that I was supposed to do — you know, without naming names — and I chose to do what was best for me, not what I had to do, not what I thought other people wanted me to do.”

The former first lady notably skipped U.S. President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, as well as the state funeral of former President Jimmy Carter in January.

She went on to discuss the guilt of saying no and how her recent choices to step away from certain responsibilities raised rumours of a possible divorce from her husband, former President Barack Obama.

“I still find time to you know, give speeches, to be out there in the world, to work on projects. I still care about girls’ education. We, you know, the library is opening in a year from now. Certain things I am and am not doing with the library,” Obama said.

She continued: “That’s the thing that we as women, I think we struggle with like disappointing people. I mean so much so that this year people were, you know — 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.”

The Obamas have been together for 32 years, according to a post from the former president on X in October.

The former first lady has been open about how Barack Obama’s political ambitions and time in the Oval Office was tough on their marriage, writing in her book “Becoming” that it resulted in loneliness and exhaustion.

Since leaving the White House, Obama has spoken out against Trump and campaigned for Vice-President Kamala Harris last year.

During one campaign stop in Michigan just days before the 2024 election, Obama said: “Please, please do not hand our fates over to the likes of Trump, who knows nothing about us, who has shown deep contempt for us.”

She added: “Because a vote for him is a vote against us, against our health, against our worth.”