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 Wednesday’s episode of her IMO podcast, Michelle sat down with the WNBA star Angel Reese. During their conversation, Michelle revealed a “rare thing” about Barack. This comes as these divorce rumors continue to spread like wildfire.
Angel Sounds Off
Michelle, 62, told Angel, 23, that a “rare thing” about Barack, 64, is that he was always “secure” in her ambition in the early days of their marriage.
This came up when Michelle asked Angel about her younger brother Julian Reese, 22, who plays as a forward for the Washington Wizards. Angel proceeded to talk about Julian’s dating life, saying that she is hoping he’ll find a partner someday who is as ambitious as she is.
“I think it takes a strong man to be able to be open to a woman who has her own [ambitions], that works on her own, that does her own things and doesn’t necessarily need you,” Angel said. However, she added that Julian may need some time to become that secure.
“I told my brother, like, ‘You want a woman who is also ambitious because you don’t want to be with somebody that is not driven, that is not gonna push you to be better—because when you’re slacking, you need somebody to tap you in the butt and be like, ‘Hey, you gotta get up and come on,'” Angel continued.
‘Rare Thing’ About Barack
Michelle responded by snapping her fingers in support of this. She then gave her own thoughts on dating as an ambitious woman with a successful career.
“It’s like, when you have your own thing, you don’t have time to make sure your this [or that], ’cause you’ve got your own pathway and it is a difficult thing,” Michelle said.
That’s when she talked about her own relationship with Barack.
“I feel very blessed that my husband, before all of this, he had to be completely secure with all that was me—how I thought, how I moved—and it’s a rare thing,” Michelle claimed.
Michelle went on to say that she regularly tells her daughters Malia, 27, and Sasha, 24, not to settle for anything less.
“You have to be able to do everything. I don’t want you to ever count on somebody,” Michelle concluded. “I’ve seen too many friends who served the role, they did what they were supposed to do, and then somebody walked out on them or somebody died, unfortunately.”
Watch Michelle and Angel talk more about this in the video below.
Obama Divorce Rumors
This comes at a difficult time for both Michelle and Barack. Indeed, the Obamas have been plagued by rampant divorce rumors for the past 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 talk about how “secure” Barack is all that she wants to, but it’s not going to do much to put these rumors to rest. Only time will tell if the Obama marriage will actually survive!