Michelle Obama Speaks Out on Barack Split Rumors
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
Former first lady Michelle Obama has addressed Barack Obama split rumors in a new interview.
Newsweek reached out to former President Barack Obama's representative outside regular working hours on Monday.
The Context
The Obamas wed on October 3, 1992, and share two children together: daughters Malia Obama, 26, and Sasha Obama, 24.
Michelle Obama did not attend former President Jimmy Carter's state funeral in January. She later announced that she would also not be attending President Donald Trump's second presidential inauguration alongside her husband.
In January, Meghan McCain—the daughter of the late Republican Senator John McCain—said on her podcast Citizen McCain that she heard rumors the couple was getting a divorce "by reputable people."
"Very serious journalists telling me that they're hearing that the Obama divorce rumors are true," she said at the time.
Barack Obama and Michelle Obama attend a men's singles first round match during the 2023 US Open at Arthur Ashe Stadium on August 28, 2023 in New York City.
Barack Obama and Michelle Obama attend a men's singles first round match during the 2023 US Open at Arthur Ashe Stadium on August 28, 2023 in New York City.
Jean Catuffe/GC Images
What To Know
During Thursday's episode of NPR's Wild Card with Rachel Martin, Michelle Obama dispelled divorce rumors.
"Even in this phase in our lives, when Barack and I say something right or wrong, it does get covered," the former first lady said.
"You know, the fact that people don't see me going out on a date with my husband sparks rumors of the end of our marriage. I mean, it's sort of..." Michelle Obama continued, before host Rachel Martin chimed in, "It's like the apocalypse!"
"It's the apocalypse," the IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson podcast host agreed. "It's like, OK, so we don't Instagram every minute of our lives. We are 60. We're 60, y'all. We just, you just are not gonna know what we're doing every minute of the day, you know?"
This isn't the first time Michelle Obama, 61, spoke out about breakup rumors. On an April episode of Work in Progress with Sophia Bush, the Becoming author addressed her absences at recent events.
"When I say no, for the most part people are like, I get it. And that's the thing we as women struggle with, is disappointing people. So much so that this year, people couldn't fathom that I was making a choice for myself, that they had to assume my husband and I were divorcing," she said. "This couldn't be a grown woman making a set of decisions for herself."
What People Are Saying
Barack Obama shared in a May 11 post on Instagram: "Happy Mother's Day to all the amazing moms and mother-figures! @MichelleObama, the girls and I are so lucky to have you in our lives. We love you."
The former president wished his wife a happy birthday in January via Instagram: "Happy birthday to the love of my life, @MichelleObama. You fill every room with warmth, wisdom, humor, and grace—and you look good doing it. I'm so lucky to be able to take on life's adventures with you. Love you!"
He also wished her a Happy Valentine's Day in February on the social media platform: "Thirty-two years together and you still take my breath away. Happy Valentine's Day, @MichelleObama!"
What Happens Next
New episodes of Wild Card with Rachel Martin air weekly on platforms like YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson airs new episodes on Wednesdays on the same platforms.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
9 minutes ago
Republican budget bill dismantles climate law passed by Democrats
WASHINGTON -- The sprawling Republican budget bill approved by the Senate Tuesday removes a proposed tax on solar and wind energy projects but quickly phases out tax credits for wind, solar and other renewable energy. The Senate approved the bill 51-50 as President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers move to dismantle the 2022 climate law passed by Democrats under former President Joe Biden. Vice President JD Vance broke a tie after three Republican senators voted no. The bill now moves to the House for final legislative approval. The excise tax on solar and wind generation projects was added to the Senate bill over the weekend, prompting bipartisan pushback from lawmakers as well as clean energy developers and advocates. The final bill removes the tax but mostly sticks with legislative language released late Friday night and would end incentives for clean energy sooner than a draft version unveiled two weeks ago. Democrats and environmental groups said the GOP plan would crush growth in the wind and solar industry and lead to a spike in Americans' utility bills. The measure jeopardizes hundreds of renewable energy projects slated to boost the nation's electric grid, they said. 'Despite limited improvements, this legislation undermines the very foundation of America's manufacturing comeback and global energy leadership,' said Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association. If the bill becomes law, 'families will face higher electric bills, factories will shut down, Americans will lose their jobs, and our electric grid will grow weaker,'' she said. The American Petroleum Institute, the top lobbying group for the oil and gas industry, applauded the bill's passage. 'This historic legislation will help usher in a new era of energy dominance by unlocking opportunities for investment, opening lease sales and expanding access to oil and natural gas development,'' said Mike Sommers, the group's president and CEO. While Democrats complained that the bill would make it harder to get renewable energy to the electric grid, Republicans said the measure represents historic savings for taxpayers and supports production of traditional energy sources such as oil, natural gas and coal, as well as nuclear power, increasing reliability. In a compromise approved overnight, the bill allows wind and solar projects that begin construction within a year of the law's enactment to get a full tax credit without a deadline for when the projects are 'placed in service,'' or plugged into the grid. Wind and solar projects that begin later must be placed in service by the end of 2027 to get a credit. The bill retains incentives for technologies such as advanced nuclear, geothermal and hydropower through 2032. Changes to the renewable energy language — including removal of the excise tax on wind and solar — were negotiated by a group of Republican senators, including Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Iowa Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley. Iowa is a top producer of wind power, while Murkowski is a longtime supporter of renewable energy as crucial for achieving energy independence, particularly for isolated rural communities in Alaska. Murkowski, who voted in favor of the final bill, called her decision-making process 'agonizing.' Changes that push back the timeline for terminating wind and solar credits mean that 'a good number' of Alaska projects would still qualify, she said. 'Again, it's not all we wanted. It could have been worse,' she told reporters Tuesday. Murkowski praised provisions calling for more oil lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other areas in Alaska and increased revenue sharing. Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, called the bill a 'massively destructive piece of legislation' that 'increases costs for everyone by walloping the health care system, making families go hungry and sending utility bills through the roof.' The bill 'saddles our children and grandchildren with trillions and trillions of dollars in debt — all to serve giant corporations, fossil fuel polluters and billionaire Republican megadonors who are already among the richest people on the planet,' Whitehouse said. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 2 Senate Republican, hailed the bill for rescinding many elements of what he called the Biden administration's 'green new scam,' including electric vehicle tax credits that have allowed car owners to lower the purchase price of EVs by $7,500. The bill also blocks for 10 years a first-ever fee on excess methane emissions from oil and gas production. Industry groups fiercely opposed the methane fee, which was authorized by Democrats in the 2022 climate law but never implemented. The GOP bill also increases oil and gas leases on public lands and revives coal leasing in Wyoming and other states. 'Today, the Senate moved President Trump's agenda forward,'' said West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican who chairs the Senate environment committee. Clean energy advocates were deeply disappointed by the bill, which they argue undoes much of the climate law before it fully takes effect. 'By eliminating a number of clean energy incentives and slashing others, this bill represents a significant step backward for America's energy future,' said Nathaniel Keohane, president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, a nonprofit that seeks to accelerate the global transition to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. 'Curtailing incentives for electricity generated from wind and solar power is particularly shortsighted'' and will raise energy prices for households and businesses and threaten reliability of the electric grid, Keohane said.
10 minutes ago
Florida cooperation with immigration enforcement sparks fears people will disappear into jails
MIAMI -- As Florida law enforcement agencies work with federal immigration officials, family members and immigrants' rights advocates worry that people will disappear into county jail systems despite the state's expansive public record laws. Miami-Dade officials said during a Thursday commission meeting that they are committed to transparency and will continue to follow state laws regarding the release of information about inmates. But one section of an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement designates all records and information created under the agreement as federal records, and some observers say ICE would have the final say on what information is made public, including whether a person is even in custody. That could be a huge problem, said William Mann, an attorney with the Community Justice Project. 'I think the concerns that many folks have would be that they (county officials) would use this language that's in this basic ordering agreement ... to prevent loved ones, family members, friends, advocates and journalists from accessing information,' Mann said. 'Meaning that they would disappear into the Miami-Dade system if they were technically an ICE prisoner.' Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary of ICE, told the Associated Press via email that any allegations that detainees do not have due process are false. 'Further, all detainees are provided ample opportunity to communicate with their attorneys and family members,' McLaughlin said. She said the easiest way to locate someone in custody is through the ICE detainee locator. Under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, local and state officials must take a much more aggressive role in supporting federal immigration enforcement, which has ramped up since President Donald Trump's return to office in January. A law 2022 law expanded the state's ban on so-called sanctuary policies and required agencies that operate county detention facilities to enter into agreements with ICE that empower local officers to identify and process 'removable aliens' in their jails. Another measure signed into law this year requires officials responsible for overseeing local or state law enforcement to use their 'best efforts' to support federal immigration enforcement. Upon the request of a federal agency, county detention centers are also required to provide a list of 'all inmates' and 'any information' about each one's immigration status. 'Today, the Florida Legislature has passed the strongest legislation to combat illegal immigration of any state in the entire country,' DeSantis said earlier this year. 'We are ahead of the curve on ending the illegal immigration crisis.' Local elected officials who initially balked at signing cooperation agreements with ICE have been threatened by the state attorney general with removal from office. At Thursday's Miami-Dade commission meeting, the board was scheduled to vote on new provisions for the county's existing ICE agreement but ultimately deferred and chose to let Mayor Daniella Levine Cava ratify the deal herself. Levine Cava told people who attended the hearing that she had no choice in the matter: 'This is the law of Florida, and it was required that this agreement be signed.' She and several commissioners noted that any public records the county has jurisdiction over would continue to be publicly available. While officials in Miami-Dade have said they are committed to transparency, federal inmates, including people on immigration holds, had not been appearing in Orange County jail records until just last week. Ericka Gómez-Tejeda, organizing director for Hope Community Center, said officials in the central Florida county took the position that the federal records were not covered by state open records laws, meaning immigrants were effectively disappearing into the system. Gómez-Tejeda pointed to the case of Esvin Juarez, who was arrested and deported to Guatemala this month before his family and attorney even knew where he was being held. Making it difficult to track detained immigrants is intentional, she said. 'It's working to the advantage of people's due process being violated,' Gómez-Tejeda said. Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings directed the jail to begin posting information about ICE detainees last week, but Gómez-Tejeda said that might not help inmates were arrested in other counties or states before being taken to Orange County. 'We have people who have been sent to four or five different detention centers,' Gómez-Tejeda said. 'And each state that you go into, that family then needs to identify an attorney that will then do their representation and their paperwork. So it puts an onerous responsibility on the families.' U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, a Democrat who represents the Orlando area, introduced legislation this month aimed at stopping unlawful detention and ending detainee mistreatment. It would require all ICE facilities to publicly report who is being detained, as well as where, when and why. 'This bill won't fix everything, but if Donald Trump and his allies think these policies are defensible, then they shouldn't be afraid to tell the public exactly what they're doing,' Frost said. 'If they're proud of it, they'll report it. If they're ashamed, they need to end it.'
30 minutes ago
Trump says the GOP mega bill will eliminate taxes on Social Security. It does not.
WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump keeps saying that Republicans' mega tax and spending cut legislation will eliminate taxes on federal Social Security benefits. It does not. At best, Trump's 'no tax on Social Security' claim exaggerates the benefits to seniors if either the House or Senate-passed proposals is signed into law. Here's a look at Trump's recent statements, and what the proposals would — or would not — do. Trump repeatedly told voters during his 2024 campaign that he would eliminate taxes on Social Security. As his massive legislative package has moved through Congress, the Republican president has claimed that's what the bill would do. Trump said on a recent appearance on Fox News' 'Sunday Morning Futures" that the bill includes 'no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime.' But instead of eliminating the tax, the Senate and House have each passed their own versions of a temporary tax deduction for seniors aged 65 and over, which applies to all income — not just Social Security. And it turns out not all Social Security beneficiaries will be able to claim the deduction. Those who won't be able to do so include the lowest-income seniors who already don't pay taxes on Social Security, those who choose to claim their benefits before they reach age 65 and those above a defined income threshold. The Senate proposal includes a temporary $6,000 deduction for seniors over the age of 65, contrasted with the House proposal, which includes a temporary deduction of $4,000. The Senate proposal approved Tuesday would eliminate Social Security tax liability for seniors with adjusted gross incomes of $75,000 or less or $150,000 if filing as a married couple. If passed into law, the tax deduction would last four years, from 2025 to 2029. The deductions phase out as income increases. Touting a new Council of Economic Advisers analysis, the White House said Tuesday that '88% of all seniors who receive Social Security — will pay NO TAX on their Social Security benefits," going on to say that the Senate proposal's $6,000 senior deduction 'is estimated to benefit 33.9 million seniors, including seniors not claiming Social Security. The deduction yields an average increase in after-tax income of $670 per senior who benefits from it.' Garrett Watson, director of policy analysis at the Tax Foundation think tank, said conflating the tax deduction with a claim that there will be no tax on Social Security could end up confusing and angering a lot of seniors who will expect to not pay taxes on their Social Security benefits. 'While the deduction does provide some relief for seniors, it's far from completely repealing the tax on their benefits,' Watson said. The cost of actually eliminating the tax on Social Security would have massive impacts on the economy. University of Pennsylvania's Penn Wharton Budget Model estimates that eliminating income taxes on Social Security benefits 'would reduce revenues by $1.5 trillion over 10 years and increase federal debt by 7 percent by 2054" and speed up the projected depletion date of the Social Security Trust Fund from 2034 to 2032. Discussions over taxes on Social Security are just part of the overall bill, which is estimated in its Senate version to increase federal deficits over the next 10 years by nearly $3.3 trillion from 2025 to 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Administration officials have said the cost of the tax bill would be offset by tariff income. Recently, the CBO separately estimated that Trump's sweeping tariff plan would cut deficits by $2.8 trillion over a 10-year period while shrinking the economy, raising the inflation rate and reducing the purchasing power of households overall.
