You can always count on Michelle Obama to keep it real, especially when she speaks out on topics close to her heart. On her trending podcast “IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson,” the former First Lady opened up about a deeply personal reason behind her absence from this year’s presidential inauguration - a decision that sparked online criticism.
In a candid conversation with guest actress Taraji P. Henson, Obama shared why she chose not to attend the ceremony with her husband, former President Barack Obama, when President Donald Trump was sworn into office for his second term in January.
This move came shortly after Obama, 61, was absent from former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral, where she would have been seated beside Trump.
“My decision to skip the inauguration, what people don’t realize, or my decision to make choices at the beginning of this year that suited me were met with such ridicule and criticism,” she shared. “People couldn’t believe that I was saying no for any other reason, that they had to assume that my marriage was falling apart, you know?”
Obama explained that the choice was simply about prioritizing her well-being, even admitting she had to “basically trick” herself into not attending.
“It started with not having anything to wear,” she explains. “I’m always prepared for any funeral, anything. I walk around with the right dress, I travel with clothes just in case something pops off. So I was like, if I’m not going to do this thing, I’ve got to tell my team I don’t even want to have a dress ready, right? Because it’s so easy just to say, ‘Let me do the right.’”
Rumors spiraled that her absence was due to marital issues with the former president. “People couldn’t believe that I was saying no for any other reason; they had to assume that my marriage was falling apart,” Obama addressed the circulating headlines surrounding the inauguration and her husband’s solo appearances. “It took everything in my power to not do the thing that was perceived as right, but do the things that were right for me; that was a hard thing for me to do.”
Choosing not to attend events centers around her new personal exercise of saying “no.” “It’s a muscle that you have to build,” she expressed. “We started training late in life to build that muscle, right? I am just now starting to build it. Obama hopes to teach encourage her daughters and women to be strategic about saying “no.”
As the conversation deepened, Obama and Henson reflected on the quiet hardships Black women face in the spotlight. Obama revealed that therapy was essential since the Obamas left the White House in 2017.
“You’ve had to be a shock absorber for your husband, for your children, for your mom, for family, your loved ones, because of where you were sitting in the public eye. That’s not fair to you,” Henson noted. “I’m happy that you are taking care of yourself in the way that you need to.”