"People couldn’t even fathom that I was making a choice for myself": Michelle Obama addresses divorce rumors with Barack Obama

Divorce rumors were swirling around the former first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama.

In her appearance on Sophia Bush's podcast, she addressed the rumors that have been going around about her alleged split from her husband, Barack Obama, the 44th US president. Reports of their divorce started circling after the former first lady was seen missing from many social events that Barack Obama was attending.

During Sophia Bush’s podcast, Work in Progress. Mrs. Obama explained that the reasons why she did not attend the events and functions her husband was at were solely based on her desire for self-care and in no way related to problems with her marriage.

During the interview, Michelle Obama said,

"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" - she explained.

Michelle Obama gets candid while addressing divorce rumors

Michelle Obama came forth to address the divorce rumors while she was on the Work in Progress podcast. For the unversed, the rumors began when Michelle was not seen with Barack Obama at former President Jimmy Carter's funeral. People wondered if there was trouble in paradise.

To add fuel to the fire, Michelle's announcement that she will not be attending President Donald Trump's second inauguration seemed to confirm the divorce rumors, according to netizens online.

However, in Bush's podcast, Michelle disclosed that it was just her way of setting "personal boundaries". She further explained,

"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" - Michelle Obama said.

She also addressed the root of the rumors by concluding that society as a whole cannot stand an independent woman who is brave enough to do what she wants. She elaborated,

"This couldn’t be a grown woman just making a set of decisions for herself, right?... But that’s what society does to us. If it doesn't fit into the stereotype of what people think we should do, then it gets labeled as something negative and horrible" - she added.

The author of Becoming also said,

"I now have the opportunity to control my own calendar... I could have made a lot of these decisions years ago, but I didn’t give myself that freedom. 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 confessed.

This is not the first time Michelle has opened up about her marriage to the former president. In her memoir, Becoming, she shared about the marital issues they both had to face while Barack Obama was the president. Michelle said there were bouts of loneliness during that period, and there was even a time when she could not stand her husband for 10 years.

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