Michelle Obama breaks silence on ex-US President Barack divorce rumours with powerful statement

Michelle Obama has broken her silence amid rumours her and former US President Barack were set for divorce.

The ex-First Lady sat down with actress Sophia Bush on her podcast Work in Progress to address the rumours. During the chat, she revealed her decision to not accompany Barack to President Jimmy Carter's funeral as well as President Donald Trump's inauguration were made for herself. The absences fuelled divorce rumours which was only compounded by Barack's admission he was in a "deep deficit" with his wife. "That's the thing that we as women, I think we struggle with disappointing people," she said. "I mean, so much so that this year people were, you know, 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."

Ms Obama added: "That's what society does to us." She continued: "We start actually, finally going: 'What am I doing? Who am I doing this for?' And if it doesn't fit into the sort of stereotype of what people think we should do, then it gets labelled as something negative and horrible.

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The former First Lady spoke candidly tot he One Tree Hill star about how she wanted to spend her twilight years, reflecting on having recently turned 61 on January 17. "So, you know, now is the time for me to start asking myself these hard questions of who do I truly want to be every day," Ms Obama said.

She continued: "And I still find time to you know, give speeches, to be out there in the , to work on projects. I still care about girls' education. We you know, the library is opening in a year from now."

Ms Obama did appear alongside her husband at the Democratic National Convention in August where they gave their backing to failed Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris. In her speech, Ms Obama admitted she struggled to come as she had been mourning her mother Marian Robinson's death.

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