Michelle Obama slams divorce rumours

Michelle Obama has robustly blasted speculation that her marriage is in trouble.

The 61-year-old former First Lady has been married to former American President Barack Obama, 63, since 1992 and they share two children together.

In recent months, rumours have been rife that the couple could be heading for divorce after Michelle failed to attend a number of events alongside her husband.

But now the attorney and author has hit back at the speculation – saying she had good reason to sit out some functions and shared her disappointment over the headlines about her private life.

Opening up on Sophia Bush’s Work in Progress podcast, she explained, “I still care about girls’ education. The library is opening in a year from now, (but there are) certain things I am and am not doing with the library.

“But, the interesting thing is that when I say no (to a project), for the most part, people are like, ‘I get it’ and I’m OK. That’s the thing that we as women struggle with – disappointing people.”

She added, “I mean, so much so that this year people were, 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.

“This couldn’t be a grown woman just making a set of decisions for herself. But, that’s what society does to us. We start actually finally going, ‘What am I doing? Who am I doing this for?'”