Michelle Obama, the spouse of the former U.S. President, fueled divorce speculation when she did not accompany Barack Obama to Jimmy Carter’s funeral.
The rumors grew stronger after she revealed she would skip Donald Trump’s second inauguration.
She addressed these divorce claims during her recent appearance on Sophia Bush’s Work in Progress podcast.
“The interesting thing is that, when I say ‘no,’ for the most part people are like, ‘I get it, and I’m OK,’” she said.
“That’s the thing that we as women, I think we struggle with disappointing people. I mean, so much so that this year people 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, right?” she added. “But that’s what society does to us. We start actually, finally going, ‘What am I doing? Who am I doing this for?’ And if it doesn’t fit into the sort of stereotype of what people think we should do, then it gets labeled as something negative and horrible.”
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