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 sat down with the former Happy Days star Henry Winkler. Indeed, they proceeded to have a discussion about raising children with very different personalities.
Michelle’s Parenting Nightmare
“I tell this story all the time about Malia and Sasha; they were probably 7 and 3 at the time,” recalled Michelle, 61. “And Barack was traveling. So I was at home trying to get the girls to bed. They were great kids, but this was one night that they were just being rambunctious.”
Michelle went on to say that she told her daughters to “get ready” and “it’s time to take your baths.” However, “no one was listening” to her.
“I was in my frustrated mommy time, and I said, ‘Well, that’s it,'” Michelle remembered. “‘You know, no one listens to me. I’m done parenting. You seem like you guys have this all figured out, and you can do this on your own. So have at it.'”
Michelle remembers Malia and Sasha having very different reactions to this statement.
“My oldest daughter, Malia, said, ‘Oh no, mommy, you know, I can’t do without you.’ And this is what I’m thinking, ‘Yeah, this is what I wanted.’ I wanted her to realize that she needed me,” Michelle stated. “So she immediately started taking off her clothes. And it’s like, ‘Mommy, no, I don’t know what I could do without you.'”
As for Sasha, she was unfazed by this.
“Sasha, my 3-year-old, was sitting on the stairs watching all this. She took her blankie, and she turned around and went back upstairs to watch TV, as if to say, like, ‘thank God,'” Michelle said. “‘At last, this is what I wanted from you, lady. I am 3. I can handle this. I’m going back upstairs.'”
Sasha reportedly “got up five steps” before Michelle stopped her toddler, directing her to “turn around and get back here.”
As this was happening, Michelle realized, “Well, it worked for one, didn’t work for the other.”
Henry responded by still asking if Michelle still sees those traits in Malia and Sasha today. Michelle immediately confirmed this, saying, “Yes, exactly who they were.”
“My younger daughter, she wants to learn her way,” Michelle concluded. “She doesn’t want to be told that this is how you do it. We tell her, but she’s gotta learn on her own.”
Obama Divorce Rumors
This comes at a difficult time for the Obama family. Over the past year, Michelle and Barack have been plagued by rampant divorce rumors.
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.
“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 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.”
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.
Michelle can tell parenting stories all that she wants to, but it doesn’t seem to be convincing anyone that all is well in her marriage. Only time will tell if the Obama marriage will actually survive 2026!