‘Don’t make me cry now’

The Obamas are setting the record straight. In a rare joint appearance on the “IMO” podcast hosted by Michelle Obama and her brother Craig Robinson, former President Barack Obama made a surprise entrance and instantly addressed the ongoing rumors that their 32-year marriage was on the rocks.

With a hug and a joke, he disarmed the speculation with charm. “Wait, you guys like each other?” Robinson teased as Barack entered the studio.

“That’s the rumor mill,” Michelle replied, before Barack added, “She took me back. It was touch and go for a while.” Michelle said, “Now don’t start.”

The presidential couple, who tied the knot in October 1992 and share two daughters, Malia, 27, and Sasha, 24, have long been admired for their partnership. But in recent months, rumors about marriage struggles started largely due to Michelle’s absence from high-profile events like the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter and the second inauguration of Donald Trump.

“When we aren’t [in the same room], folks think we’re divorced,” Michelle said on the podcast. Craig Robinson shared that the speculation had gotten so widespread that a woman in Kansas once pulled him aside and asked, “What did he do?” referring to Barack. Her visible relief when told the truth, he said, was “like giving her a Christmas gift.”

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Barack admitted he’s often oblivious to the online chatter. “These are the kinds of things I just miss,” he said. “Somebody will mention it to me, and I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’”

“There hasn’t been one moment in our marriage where I thought about quittin’ 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.”

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“OK, don’t make me cry now,” Barack replied, visibly touched. The couple’s remarks echoed comments Michelle made earlier this year, when she first confronted the rumors in interviews and other podcast appearances. 

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On the “Diary of a CEO” podcast in April, she said. “If I were having problems with my husband, everybody would know about it… He would know it, and everybody would know it,” adding, “I would be problem-solving in public,” she said. “And be like, ‘Let me tell you what he did.’”

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In another April interview with Sophia Bush on ‘Work in Progress,’ Michelle discussed how the backlash to her autonomy was revealing. “We, as women, struggle with disappointing people,” she noted. “So much so that this year, people couldn’t even fathom that I was making a choice for myself. They had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing. This couldn’t be a grown woman just making a set of decisions herself, right?”