Michelle Obama disclosed a jarring comment made by her husband, former President Barack Obama, following the death of her mother, as she detailed her ongoing mental health journey and addressed persistent rumors surrounding her marriage. During an episode of the Michelle Obama: The Light Podcast, recorded with her brother Craig Robinson, the former first lady reflected on the emotional weight of losing their mother, Marian Robinson, who died at age 86 in May 2024.
"Barack was saying, you know, 'Well, you're next up,'" Michelle said. "I was like, 'I'm not really ready to be next up.' I told him, 'You're next up and Craig is next up. I delegate that power to you.'"
The siblings spoke candidly about how the loss of both parents-Fraser C. Robinson III passed in 1991-has altered their sense of adulthood and responsibility. "That's really when you become an adult," Michelle said. "It's when your parents are not in that spot of managing and maintaining... we become the parent, we become the convener, we become the glue."
Michelle, now 61, revealed she is undergoing therapy to help navigate what she called the "next phase" of her life, describing herself as an "empty nester" who has finished a difficult chapter. Speaking on The Jay Shetty Podcast, she explained, "At this phase of my life, I'm in therapy right now because I'm transitioning, you know? I'm 60 years old, I finished a really hard thing in life with my family intact... every choice I'm making is completely mine."
The former first lady acknowledged that setting personal boundaries-such as skipping two consecutive public events-has fueled public speculation about her marriage. "My decision to skip the inauguration... were met with such ridicule and criticism, like people couldn't believe that I was saying no for any other reason, that they had to assume that my marriage was falling apart," she said.
She elaborated that the speculation became a form of external pressure at odds with her internal goals. "It took everything in my power to not do the thing that was perceived as right, but do the thing that was for me," she said.
Addressing the rumors directly in a separate interview with Steven Bartlett, Michelle dismissed the idea that she and the former president were headed for divorce. "If I were having problems with my husband, everybody would know about it," she said. Her brother Craig Robinson added humorously, "If they were having a problem, I'd be doing a podcast with him."
Michelle called marriage "hard," but added, "I wouldn't trade it," referring to Barack as "my person." She emphasized the mutual commitment in their relationship, stating, "Neither one of us was ever really, ever going to quit at it, because that's not who we are."
The conversation also touched on public perception of her image, including criticism that labeled her as the "angry Black woman." Michelle said, "The first label they put on us as Black women is that we are angry... The first thing that some female journalist said is that I emasculating him just by sort of trying to tell the truth about what my life was, right?"
She concluded that therapy has become essential in "unwinding old habits" and "sorting through guilt" accumulated over decades in public life. "I now have the wisdom to know-let me go get some coaching while I'm doing it," she said.
