Michelle Obama Admits She and Barack Are 'Navigating a New Phase' of Marriage — After Months of Divorce Speculation
Michelle Obama explained her 'new phase' of marriage with husband Barack.
March 11 2026, Published 4:56 p.m. ET
Michelle Obama got incredibly candid about where she is currently at in her marriage to husband Barack, revealing they're "navigating" a new phase through uncharted waters, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The former first couple went through a rough patch after leaving the White House and becoming empty nesters, and now Michelle, 64, says their new chapters are taking "time" for adjustment.
Michelle and. Barack Obama are Rediscovering Each Other
Michelle Obama said she and husband Barack are in in a 'new phase.'
"Our kids are grown. They’re out. We're looking at each other like, 'Hey, I remember you,'" Michelle said during the March 11 episode of her IMO podcast while discussing life with Barack, 64, after daughters Malia, 27, and Sasha, 24, moved out.
"I think it's a new phase for us, which takes time," the Becoming author continued about how she and her husband are having to rediscover themselves as individuals as well as together.
The Obamas lived in the White House from 2009 through 2017.
"My husband did the hardest job," Michelle noted of Barack's two terms as president. "He reached the top of the thing you could do. Now he's got work to do, individual work to figure out, 'Where am I gonna be? What do I wanna say? Who do I want to be?'"
"I'm doing the same thing. That's a whole new assignment, right?" Michelle explained to guests Sterling K. Brown and Ryan Michelle Bathe.
She added, "That you have to factor in to the newness of now we're doing this, we're back to just me and him. It takes time, is all I'm saying. All of these new stages take time for adjustment."
Each New Phase Has 'Bumps' Along the Way
Barack and Michelle Obama went though a rough patch after becoming empty nesters.
Michelle and Barack have been married for 33 years, and she gave some solid advice to Brown and Bathe, who are college sweethearts who married 20 years ago.
"We think this stuff, this is like really hard, complicated stuff that you are negotiating with another person," the former White House resident said about raising children with her spouse.
She then reflected on how each new step of the way brings different chapters to a relationship.
"All I'm saying is that it all takes time, and to think that there aren't going to be bumps along the way of each of those phases, right?" Michelle noted.
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'We've Gotten Over the Hump'
Michelle Obama thinks she and Barack will be married 'for another 30 years.'
"In any long relationship, there are going to be years, months, hours, long periods of time, if you add it all up, where things just don't feel right. You don't quit on it. Sometimes that means you dig deeper, and if you don't dig deeper, you miss all the stuff on the end," Michelle revealed about why she and Barack never called it quits even in the toughest of times.
"The level of muscle that Barack and I have in our marriage is earned. It's earned over time, and it's only gotten better," she continued. "And I think that's the point. And then if you quit too soon, you rob yourself of the success of the better, the work that goes in."
"And we've been married 30 years. We're healthy people, we could be married for another 30 years. That's a long time. And it could be 30 years of absolute bliss, because we've done the work. We've gotten over the hump."
