COUPLESBarack Obama Admits He Spent the Past Few Years 'Digging Myself Out of a Hole' With Michelle After Presidency Took a Toll on Their Marriage
Barack and Michelle Obama recently denied divorce rumors.
Sept. 25 2025, Published 11:53 a.m. ET
Barack Obama doesn't try to sugarcoat the fact that being the president took a toll on his family life.
In a candid interview with David Olusoga in London on Wednesday, September 24, the former POTUS explained he's still working to make amends for having to put his loved ones second while he was in the Oval Office.
Barack Obama admitted he had to dig himself out of a hole with Michelle due to all of the years he had to prioritize being president.
"I was digging myself out of the hole I found myself with Michelle," he replied when asked what he's been up to for the past few years. "Now I'm at about level ground."
The pair got married in 1992, with Barack, 64, serving as the commander in chief from 2009 to 2017.
The spouses have been very open about their relationship recently, especially after divorce rumors swirled earlier this year.
What Sparked the Obama Divorce Rumors?
The mother-of-two denied the divorce claims in June.
The speculation began when the POTUS attended a few events — such as Jimmy Carter's January funeral and Donald Trump's inauguration — by himself.
The former first lady, 61, finally shot down the gossip in June when she appeared on the "Wild Card" podcast.
"The fact that people don’t see me going out on a date with my husband sparks rumors of the end of our marriage," the mom-of-two said. "It’s like, ‘OK, so we don’t Instagram every minute of our lives.’ We are 60. We’re 60, y’all. You just are not gonna know what we’re doing every minute of the day."
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Michelle Obama Now Lives Life for Herself
After serving as the first lady for eight years, Michelle now makes decisions based on what she wants to do.
When it came to why she didn't join Barack on those high-profile occasions, she explained, "One of the major decisions I made this year was to stay put and not attend funerals and inaugurations and all the things that I’m supposed to attend."
"That was a part of me using my ambition to say, ‘Let me define what I want to do, apart from what I’m supposed to do, what the world expects of me.’ And I have to own that," the Becoming author continued. "Those are my choices. Whatever the backlash was, I had to sit in it and own it. But I didn’t regret it, you know? It’s my life now, and I can say that now. But we’ll see."
Barack Appeared on His Wife's Podcast
Michelle insisted she has never 'thought about quitting' their marriage.
The couple further squashed divorce chatter by having the dad-of-two appear on his wife's "IMO" podcast, which she co-hosts with her brother, Craig Robinson.
"When we aren’t, folks think we’re divorced," Michelle joked of being in the same room with her spouse. "There hasn’t been one moment in our marriage where I have thought about quitting my man."
"We’ve had some really hard times and we’ve had a lot of fun times, a lot of adventures and I’ve become a better person because of the man I’m married to," she declared.
