Critics of the Obamas have long speculated about the nature of their marriage, but broader concerns about the relationship have become more mainstream in recent months.
After both Barack and Michelle Obama made a series of solo appearances, rumors began to swirl that they were headed for divorce.
This week, the former president added a bit of fuel to the fire with his somewhat cryptic acknowledgement about their marriage.
As Page Six reported:
“I was in a deep deficit with my wife,” Barack, 63, told Hamilton College President Steven Tepper in a conversation Thursday, according to the Daily Beast.
“So I have been trying to dig myself out of that hole by doing occasionally fun things.”
The former president of the United States has previously suggested that his back-to-back terms in office from 2009 to 2017 took a toll on his relationship with the former first lady.
“Let me just say this: It sure helps to be out of the White House and to have a little more time with her,” Barack said in a May 2023 interview, making sure to praise Michelle for being “forgiving” of his shortcomings.
As for the 61-year-old, she revealed in December 2022 that she “couldn’t stand” her husband for a solid decade when their daughters — Malia, 26, and Sasha, 23 — “were little,” noting that she wasn’t “being catty by saying this.”
According to Michelle, “marriage isn’t 50/50 — ever, ever.”
She explained at the time, “There are times I’m 70, he’s 30. There are times he’s 60, [I’m] 40. But guess what? Ten years — we’ve been married 30 — I would take 10 bad years over 30. It’s just how you look at it.”
Here’s some additional speculation about the Obamas:
First it was just a rumor.
Now Megyn Kelly discusses that the Obamas may actually be getting a divorce pic.twitter.com/q58pPqLjZg
— MAGA Resource (@MAGAResource) March 9, 2025
🔥🚨BREAKING: Former President Obama just ignited more divorce rumors after her was spotted at a Los Angeles Clippers basketball game without his wife Michelle Obama. This comes after a report that Obama has been staying with his ‘best friend’ Martin Nesbitt in preparation for… pic.twitter.com/9wVJ1ZhIik
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) March 6, 2025
HOT MIC: Michelle Obama fueled more divorce buzz in her new podcast, hinting that she leaned on her brother — not her husband — to survive their White House years. pic.twitter.com/VLUgDLOSDR
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 13, 2025
Barack Obama’s comments and the underlying divorce rumors were covered in greater detail by the Daily Beast:
The couple had tried to silence the gossip by posting cozy selfies together on Valentine’s Day accompanied by loving messages.
Michelle and Barack met in the late 1980s at the law firm where they both worked, eventually tying the knot in 1992.
In his 2020 memoir, A Promised Land, the former president wrote he “was smitten almost from the second I saw her.”
At Thursday’s event at the college in Clinton, New York, Obama also broke his silence on Trump’s presidency. Slamming his successor’s attempts to attack law firms and the press, he called out the lack of pushback Trump is getting.
Here’s a recent Fox News Channel clip featuring a discussion of the issue:
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