Over the past year, rumors have been swirling that Barack and Michelle Obama are heading for divorce. According to these rumors, Barack and Michelle have been living “separate lives” for quite some time.
On the latest episode of her IMO podcast, Michelle branded her oldest daughter Malia as being “useless.” The former First Lady said this as she recalled saving a choking friend at dinner as Malia watched and did nothing. This comes as the Obama divorce rumors only continue to spread like wildfire.
Michelle Sounds Off
“I gave one of my girlfriends the Heimlich at dinner,” Michelle, 62, told her older brother Craig Robinson, who is her podcast co-host.
Michelle went on to recall that she was at dinner that night with her friend, her daughter Malia, 27, and Malia’s two friends.
“We’re the same age, and you know, you start having swallowing problems. Things just stop,” Michelle explained. “But [Michelle’s friend] had chewed her food; she had told me before that she had this esophageal issue where things will get stuck, so I knew that about her.”
When Michelle’s friend finished eating, she stood up and started choking.
“I think she coughed up something, and it got stuck in her throat,” Michelle recounted. “She was straining, and I said, ‘Are you OK?'”
“I had never done the Heimlich before, and it dislodged it,” she added. “It just popped up right away.”
Michelle then said that as soon as her friend began to choke, Malia and her friends “pushed away from the table.”
“I looked at the kids, and I was like, ‘What were you all doing?'” Michelle lamented. “They were like, ‘You’re right, we were useless.’ They realized that that was a mother moment.”
Watch Michelle talk more about this in the video below.
Obama Divorce Rumors
This comes at a difficult time for the Obama family. Indeed, Michelle and her husband Barack, 64, have been plagued by rampant divorce rumors for over a year.
These divorce rumors escalated in a big way back in January of last year, when Michelle skipped both the funeral of Jimmy Carter and the inauguration of Donald Trump. She was the only living former First Lady to miss each of these events. This forced Barack to attend both events alone.
“I have been hearing this rumor that the Obamas are getting a divorce by reputable people,” political commentator Meghan McCain said on reporter Tara Palmeri’s podcast in 2025. “I’m not talking about TMZ, I’m not talking about Perez Hilton, although I love him, he’s my friend.”
“I’m talking about like very serious journalists telling me that they’re hearing that the Obama divorce rumors are true,” she continued.
“We’ve heard that for a long time,” replied Tara, who has long covered Washington politics. “Like I just heard that they live separate lives.”
Listen to Meghan and Tara talk more about this in the clip below.
Michelle Accused Of ‘Really Disliking’ Barack
Michelle launched her IMO podcast back in March of last year. Since then, Michelle has used it to bash Barack and air his dirty laundry seemingly every chance she gets.
In fact, Michelle has complained about Barack so many times on her podcast that the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has claimed that the former First Lady “really dislikes her husband, and it’s super obvious.”
“I’m not just saying that to be catty,” Tucker explained. “I think I’m trying to feel compassion for her but her hostility toward the guy is unbelievable.”
Tucker’s fellow former Fox News host Megyn Kelly was quick to agree. She pointed out that “everything Michelle says about her husband is negative.”
“I almost never say negative things about Doug,” Megyn added, referring to her own husband Doug Brunt. “He’s not perfect but when I think about him, I don’t immediately go to whatever is negative. I go to what’s positive and what I love about him.”
The Obamas Respond
Back in July of last year, Barack appeared on Michelle’s IMO podcast. There, they desperately tried to shoot down the escalating divorce rumors.
“There hasn’t been one moment in our marriage where I thought about quitting my man,” Michelle claimed. “And we’ve had some really hard times. So we 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.”
“These are the kinds of things that I just miss, right?” Barack chimed in to add. “So I don’t even know this stuff’s going on. And then somebody will mention it to me and I’m all like, ‘what are you talking about?'”
Unfortunately for the Obamas, however, many are still not buying their claims that their marriage is still going strong.
Michelle can call her own daughter “useless” all that she wants to, but it’s not going to help her case that all is well between her and Barack. Only time will tell if the Obama marriage will actually survive.