Former First Lady of the United States and resident badass Michelle Obama has finally addressed at all the pesky divorce rumours floating around.
The 61-year-old has been married to Barack Obama for 32 years and they’ve been lowkey couple goals, from their sweet moments on the campaign trail to the loved-up social media posts. Which is why her absence at a couple of major public events recently — like Donald Trump‘s presidential inauguration and the funeral of former US President Jimmy Carter — had everyone wondering if there was something going down.
A pretty bonkers rumour even claimed Barack was having an affair with Jennifer Aniston (I mean!!??) but she quickly shut that shit down.
Appearing on Sophia Bush‘s Work in Progress podcast on Tuesday, Michelle has now put the divorce rumours to rest, saying people are making assumptions based on her finally making her own decisions since the family left the White House. And girl, I feel you on this one.
“The interesting thing is that, when I say ‘no,’ for the most part people are like, ‘I get it, and I’m okay’,” she said of her decision to turn down invitations, per The New York Post.
“That’s the thing that we as women, I think… we struggle with disappointing people. So much so that this year, people 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 herself, right? But that’s what society does to us. We start actually going, ‘What am I? What am I doing? What 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.”
She acknowledged she’s finally got to be more in charge of her calendar (love that for her!) now that she’s no longer tied to the White House. Her daughters Malia, 26, and Sasha, 23, have also flown the coup.
“Now, you know, I can’t blame my decisions and indecisions on anyone other than me,” Michelle said.
“I think if I’m honest with myself, I could have made a lot of these decisions years ago. But I didn’t give myself that freedom.”
Mom and dad vibes only. (Source: Instagram)
The former first lady also dished on how she’s thinking about “making some big girl decisions” now that she’s in her 60s.
“If not now, when? What am I waiting for? How am I going to spend 20 years?” 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?’”
Last week, as the rumour mill kept doing its thing, Barack spoke out about his and Michelle’s marriage. Speaking at a Hamilton College event, he said he was “in a deep deficit with my wife” after his two terms in the Oval Office ended, per The Daily Beast.
It was just weeks after the Obamas posted a loved up selfie for Valentine’s Day, and there were still plenty of comments wondering if we were in for some bad news.
Now I don’t know about you guys, but in a year of messy splits and break-ups, I’m glad we can hold onto this one.
