Obamas joke about divorce rumors: ‘It was touch and go for a while’
By Arlette Saenz, CNN
(CNN) — Former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are addressing rumors about a divorce head-on in an episode of her podcast released Wednesday.
“She took me back!” Barack Obama said on the “IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson” podcast. “It was touch and go for a while.”
Speculation about the former first couple’s marriage has run rampant in recent months. Some of the rumors picked up steam after several public appearances where Michelle Obama did not join her husband, including President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.
“It’s so nice to have you both in the same room together,” said Robinson, who is Michelle Obama’s brother, to the couple. Michelle responded, “I know because when we aren’t, folks think we’re divorced.”
Robinson recounted a story when a woman at an airport approached him to ask about their marriage. “‘What did he do?’” Robinson said she asked him.
“These are the kinds of things that I just miss,” Barack Obama said. “So I don’t even know this stuff’s going on and then somebody will mention it to me and I’m like what are you talking about?”
Michelle Obama continued on saying, “There hasn’t been one moment in our marriage where I’ve thought about quitting on my man. And we’ve had some really hard times and we’ve had a lot of fun times, a lot of adventures and I have become a better person because of the man I’m married to.”
The former first lady previously has addressed the speculation about her marriage and her decision not to attend Trump’s inauguration.
“My decision to skip the inauguration, 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,” she explained on an episode of her podcast earlier this year. “People couldn’t believe that I was saying no for any other reason that they had to assume that my marriage was falling apart.”
The Obamas married in 1992.
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