In a candid moment on her podcast IMO, which she co-hosts with her brother Craig Robinson, former First Lady Michelle Obama addressed a subject that had long fueled speculation: her noticeable absence from President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.
Her decision sparked a flurry of rumors, including false claims that her marriage with former President Barack Obama was on the rocks. But now, Michelle is setting the record straight.
“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,” Obama explained during the episode. She shared that her absence was a deliberate act of self-care, part of what she describes as the art of saying no.
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She continued, “People couldn’t believe that I was saying no for any other reason that they had to assume that my marriage was falling apart. While I’m here really trying to own my life and intentionally practice making the choice that was right for me— and it took everything in my power to not do the thing that was right or that was ‘perceived’ as right, but do the thing that was right for me.”
READ ALSO: Michelle Obama breaks silence on why she skipped major events Barack Obama attended
Michelle admitted that choosing not to attend the inauguration was no easy feat. “It was a hard thing for [her] to do,” she confessed, noting that she had to mentally prepare herself by eliminating even the temptation to reverse her decision.
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“I’m always prepared for any funeral, anything. I walk around with the right dress […] 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 to just say ‘let me do the right thing,’” she added.
While former President Barack Obama did attend the event, Michelle emphasized that her decision was about reclaiming agency and setting boundaries, a skill she is still learning to master.
She called it part of “practicing the art of saying no,” which she describes as a “muscle” she’s “just now starting to build.”
Michelle also spoke about the pressure she has felt to meet public expectations, even after years of service and visibility.
“After all that I’ve done in this world, if I still have to show people that I love my country, that I’m doing the right thing, that I am going high all the time, all I’m doing is keeping that crazy bar that our mothers and grandmothers set for us,” she said.
READ ALSO: Barack Obama opens up about “deep deficit” in his marriage to Michelle
