Michelle Obama Bomb: 'I Couldn't Stand' Barack for 10 Years, Has Only Been Happy for 2/3 of Marriage
Marriage can already be a stressful and taxing powder keg for an average American. Adding a public microscope and the prying eyes of the American populace will, by any metric, not help with potential marital woes.
That being said, it’s still raising a few eyebrows that former first lady Michelle Obama had some … choice words to describe a low point in her marriage to former President Barack Obama.
In a December interview with Revolt, a music-oriented network founded by Sean “Diddy” Combs (think MTV for Gen Z), Michelle Obama took the time to promote her new book while also sharing some less-than-flattering words about parts of her marriage to Barack Obama.
You can watch the entire 100-minute interview below:
In a panel hosted by musicians H.E.R. and Kelly Rowland; supermodel Winnie Harlow; businesswoman Tina Knowles-Lawson and radio host Angie Martinez, the long-form discussion/interview covers a litany of topics, which unsurprisingly included details about Michelle’s marriage to Barack.
“Well, and this is the give and take of relationships that I see in young couples,” Michelle said when talking about the importance of communication in a relationship. “I see them giving up too fast, right, because we don’t talk about how much work is required and how hard it is even when you are madly in love with the person.”
So far, so good. Michelle Obama is 100 percent correct that married people are far too quick to press the “divorce” emergency release button when a marriage gets tough.
But then, she provided a curious example of her self-professed virtue as she described a not insignificant period of her marriage:
“People think I’m being catty by saying this,” Michelle said. “There were 10 years where I couldn’t stand my husband.”
That’s … an interesting way to describe some marital turbulence.
Being furious at your husband for 10 minutes? Sure.
Letting a petty issue fester for 10 years? Probably not healthy, but again, sure.
Combining the two into not being able to stand your husband for 10 years? That’s not healthy, admirable or good parenting.
And it’s that last tenet, regarding parenting, that seems to have been the root cause of Michelle’s and Barack’s decade-long rift:
“And guess when it happened?” Michelle rhetorically asked about this decade of discontent. “When those kids were little.”
She then went on to describe the difficulties of both parents pursuing a career (which she just had to have to be Barack’s “equal”), while also raising two young children. Michelle’s daughters, Sasha and Malia, are currently 21 and 24, respectively.
It does need to be pointed out that Michelle’s lackluster views on motherhood are, ironically, a key factor in destabilized marriages. There is no written law or rule of the land that states a woman’s life is somehow deemed less worthy by being a stay-at-home mom. There’s no reason a “professional career” should, in any way, shape or form, be deemed more valuable than a career in homemaking.
It’s a depressingly misleading belief that, to the surprise of virtually nobody, Michelle Obama partakes in.
“Little kids, they’re terrorists,” Michelle Obama said. “They are. They have demands; they don’t talk; they’re poor communicators; they cry all the time; they’re irrational; they’re needy, and you love them more than anything.”
It’s good that Michelle threw in that “love them more than anything” remark, because before that line, she sounded like every divorcee parent who just can’t handle the pressures of parenting alongside a professional career.
“For 10 years while we’re trying to build our careers and worrying about school and who’s doing what and what, I was like, ‘Argh, this isn’t even!’” Michelle Obama said. “And guess what? Marriage isn’t 50/50, ever. Ever. There are times, I’m 70, he’s 30. There are times he’s 60, 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. And people give up — ‘Five years; I can’t take it.’”
As Michelle mentioned in her diatribe, 10 years out of a thirty year marriage is a significant period of time. Obviously, the impact of those 10 years diminishes the smaller and smaller percentage of your relationship it becomes. But for now, it’s inarguable that Michelle Obama “couldn’t stand” her husband for a third of their marriage.
As Fox News noted, Michelle and Barack Obama first met in 1989, and their collective net worth has now reached at least $70 million.
And while Michelle Obama has vehemently denied having any interest in a future presidential bid, 2024 and 2028 are still a while away.
I suppose the question now is: Will Barack be able to “stand” a potential time as the “first husband”?
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