Over the past few months, 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.
Now, eyebrows are being raised after Jenna Bush Hager revealed that her father, the former President George W. Bush, refers to Michelle as his “girlfriend.” Indeed, this only makes this entire situation all the more bizarre.
George Calls Michelle His ‘Girlfriend’
On Tuesday morning, Michelle appeared on TODAY With Jenna & Friends to promote her new fashion book “The Look.” There, Jenna opened up about the strange relationship that Michelle has with her dad.
Needless to say, it didn’t take long for this to get weird.
“We have a relationship, but there probably is no more beloved relationship than you and my dad’s,” Jenna, 43, told Michelle, 61. “People long for that.”
Jenna then showed her audience a 2016 photo of Michelle hugging George at the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The Obamas and Bushes have crossed paths at political events many times over the years. When this happens, Michelle and George are frequently seen happily commiserating.
“But that’s how he makes me feel when we’re together,” Michelle explained. “I wanna just hug him up, but he keeps me entertained when we’re seated together.”
That’s when Jenna revealed that George, 79, has even described Michelle as his “girlfriend” while talking to Barack, 64.
“We ran into your husband at a recent event, maybe a year ago, and my dad was like, ‘How’s my girlfriend!?’ while walking off,” Jenna recalled.
“You know he misses you,” the former First Daughter added. “He can’t wait to see you again.”
Michelle responded by playfully asking Jenna if her father is “behaving himself.”
“No, he’s not. He’s not behaving himself at all,” Jenna teased.
“That’s good, though,” Michelle fired back with a laugh. “I’m glad about that.”
Obama Divorce Rumors
While this may seem harmless to some, it also comes at a seemingly difficult time for Barack and Michelle. Indeed, they have been plagued by rampant and incessant divorce rumors for quite some time.
These divorce rumors escalated in a big way back in January, 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. It should be noted that George and his wife Laura Bush were in attendance at each of these events.
“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 earlier this year. “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. 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 recently 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.”
Watch Tucker and Megyn talk more about this in the video below.
The Obamas Respond
Back in July, 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.
Given the rumors about the state of the Obama marriage, now might not be the best time for George to be referring to Michelle as his “girlfriend.” Only time will tell if the Obama marriage will actually survive!