Michelle Obama is finally setting the record straight.
On her podcast IMO With Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson, she opened up about why she skipped Donald Trump’s second inauguration. And no, it wasn’t drama, scandal, or trouble at home.
“It was simply the choice that was right for me,” she said.
She admitted people just couldn’t believe her absence wasn’t some deep issue.
“People couldn’t believe that I was saying no for any other reason, they had to assume that my marriage was falling apart.”
Her husband, Barack Obama, still showed up to some events solo, including Jimmy Carter’s funeral, where Michelle would’ve been seated next to Trump.
That sparked even more rumors, but Michelle was clear: she needed a break from doing “what looked right.”
“It took everything in my power to not do the thing that was perceived as right, but do the things that was right for me.”
She even had to outsmart herself to stick with her decision, she said, “It started with not having anything to wear. I was like, if I’m not going to do this thing, I got to tell my team, I don’t even want to have a dress ready.”
Michelle said attending events without Barack, or letting him go without her, is part of learning how to say “no” without guilt.
“It’s a muscle that you have to build… we started training late in life to build that muscle.”
And now, she’s hoping the next generation builds that muscle early.
“I want our daughters, I want the young women out there… to start practicing different strategies for saying no.”
After all she’s done, Michelle still feels pressure to “go high” and do what looks right—even when the world around her doesn’t.
“All I’m doing is keeping that crazy bar that our mothers and grandmothers set for us.”
43 min mark
