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Barack and Michelle Obama made light of the viral divorce rumors about them on Michelle's podcast on Wednesday, with the former president quipping that his wife took him back.
"She took me back!" Barack Obama said jokingly on the "IMO" podcast hosted by his wife and her brother Craig Robinson. "It was touch and go for a while."
Michelle Obama's absence from events like President Donald Trump's inauguration and Jimmy Carter's funeral, along with the inevitable internet rumor mill, had drummed up speculation that the couple was on the outs. The former first lady had addressed the online stories in other interviews this year, but this was the first time the couple had discussed it together.
"It's my husband, ya'll!" Michelle Obama said at the start of the show when he came on. "When we aren't [in the same room], folks think we're divorced."
Former President Barack Obama, Craig Robinson, and former First Lady Michelle Obama on the "IMO" podcast on July 16, 2025. (Screenshot/"IMO" podcast)
Robinson said the rumors had gotten bad enough that one woman asked him in Kansas, "What did he do?", referring to Barack and what he may have done to alienate his wife. Robinson said the woman was delighted to learn that there was nothing to the story.
The former president said he had no idea about the rumors because he was disconnected from such online chatter.
"There hasn't been one moment in our marriage where I've thought about quitting my man," Michelle said. "We've had some really hard times. We've 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."
"Don't make me cry now," Barack said. "Don't let me start tearing up now."
Former first lady Michelle Obama joked on her podcast Wednesday about the divorce rumors surrounding her and the former president. (Getty Images)
MICHELLE OBAMA MOCKS RUMORS THAT HER MARRIAGE IS IN TROUBLE
In previous media appearances, Michelle has ridiculed the rumors and suggested there was a sexist angle to the allegations that she couldn't be a woman simply making her own decisions.
"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."
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"My decision to skip the inauguration, what people don’t realize — or my decision to make choices at the beginning of this year that suited me were met with such ridicule and criticism," she said on an episode of her podcast earlier this year. "People couldn’t believe that I was saying no for any other reason that they had to assume that my marriage was falling apart."
David Rutz is a senior editor at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter at @davidrutz.
