Are they, or aren't they?
There's been a lot of open speculation about the future of Barack and Michelle Obama's marriage in the past few months.
Which is a little jarring, given the feverish hagiography their union received from the "of course I listen to Teri Gross" crowd during the first Trump term. On the other hand, after watching the public relations artifice of the Clinton marriage for the past 25 years, I do have questions - about the Obamas and other political celebrity couples.
The official word for public consumption from the Obama's PR machine is pretty sanguine:
Michelle Obama has attracted attention and even prompted questions about her marriage after skipping recent high-profile events like President Donald Trump's inauguration and the late President Jimmy Carter's funeral, leaving her husband to attend on his own.
"But the interesting thing is that when I say no, for the most part, people are like, ‘I get it, and I'm okay,' right?" she told podcast host Sophia Bush of how she spends her time. "And that's the thing that we as women, I think we struggle with, like disappointing people. I mean so much so that this year people were, they couldn't even fathom that I was making a choice for myself, that they had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing, you know? This couldn't be a grown woman just making a set of decisions herself, right? But that's what society does to us."
But not everyone is convinced - after listening to Michelle Obama:
I really respect Michelle Obama - but if she wants everyone to stop speculating on her marriage she shouldn’t spend every episode of her podcast telling women we need to expect marriage to be a torturous hellscape with few glimpses of happiness scattered about here and there.
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) April 23, 2025
It's the former FLOTUS's podcast presence that's raising some eyebrows from within what could be called "friendly territory" - in this case, Heather Schwedel at the relentlessly pro-Obama Slate:
This week, Obama was the guest on two episodes of Bush’s show Work in Progress, which Bush has apparently been hosting since 2019 with the mission of featuring “frank, funny, and oftentimes deeply personal conversations with people who inspire Sophia.” (OK!) Obama brought up her marriage in a discussion with Bush over what her schedule looks like these days, sharing that now that her husband is no longer president and her kids are grown up, she feels more empowered to spend her time how she wants to. She referred to one particular “real big example” this year of her looking at her calendar, and “without naming names,” choosing “to do what was best for me, not what I had to do.” In response, 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 went on. “This couldn’t be a grown woman just making a set of decisions for herself, right? But that is what society does to us.”
And the money takeaway to Schwedel:
So is there any chance this interview actually quiets all the Obama divorce gossip? Though I’ve up to now considered it all pretty unfounded, and can see that the intention behind bringing it up was to point out how ridiculous and therefore untrue it is, I’ll say that the way Obama was talking about living her life for herself in parts of this interview definitely caught my attention. Here’s more of what she said: “I feel like it’s time for me to make some big-girl decisions about my life and to own it fully, right, because if not now, when? What am I waiting for? What am I going to spend the next 20 years, you know, because look, the, you know, the summers are … We’re in summer countdown at 61, right?” She added, “Now is the time for me to start asking myself these hard questions of who do I want? Who do I truly want to be every day?” If you ask me, these don’t sound like the questions a woman is asking herself when she’s deciding whether or not to attend presidential funerals and inaugurations. They sound much more existential. Sorry, they just do! I continue to hope the Obamas are happy, and to think of them breaking up, especially now, would be terribly sad. But I am slightly more open to the speculation now than I was previously. Another reason I hope it’s not true, though? I really don’t want to have to admit that Sophia Bush somehow got the scoop of the century.
"Scoop of the century"? That might be a little hyperbolic.
But after the bill of goods Big Left tried to sell us about Joe Biden's level of vigor and health, I don't not expect complete reversals in image from public figures, either.
