Former President Barack Obama and wife Michelle have finally sought to shut down the long-running rumors they’re headed for divorce — even though they’ve barely been seen together in months.
The former first couple jointly addressed the speculation swirling around their three-decade marriage for the first time Wednesday, joking on the latest episode of the ex-first lady’s podcast that it was “touch and go for a while.”
“He made time in his busy schedule to come on. We are honored,” Michelle, 61, told listeners before her co-host and brother, Craig Robinson, shot back, “Wait, you guys like each other?”
“She took me back,” Barack, 63, quickly chimed in. “It was touch and go for a while.”
Robinson went on to note it was nice to have the couple in the same room together, prompting Michelle to fire back, “I know because when we aren’t, folks think we’re divorced.”
The Obamas have tried to quell speculation by posting cute pics on social media — even as they seemed to live mostly separate lives in public.
The whispers hit fever-pitch when the former first lady noticeably skipped two high-profile events earlier this year: former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral and President Trump’s inauguration.
“There hasn’t been one moment in our marriage where I have thought about quitting my man,” Michelle insisted Wednesday.
“We’ve had some really hard times and we’ve had a lot of fun times, a lot of adventures and I’ve become a better person because of the man I’m married to.”
The show of unity came despite the pair rarely being seen side-by-side in public for months — a far cry from years gone by.
They were last pictured stepping out for a date night as they left the swanky The Lowell Hotel restaurant in New York City on May 27 and cozying up for dinner at the bustling Osteria Mozza in Washington, DC in April.
Before then, Barack and Michelle hadn’t been seen together since Dec. 14 when they were snapped leaving the Mother Wolf restaurant in Los Angeles.
They did, however, share the rare photo or two on social media to mark birthdays, holidays and anniversaries.
During the podcast, Robinson acknowledged that he, too, had been dragged into the apparent marriage-woe-saga, recalling one moment when a woman in Wichita, Kansas, asked him point-blank if the couple were still together.
“This woman came up to me. She was so nice. [She asked], ‘Can I have a picture?’ You know how you get the side hug? She was like, ‘What did he do? … He did something, didn’t he?’” Robinson said.
When Robinson assured the woman that Barack and Michelle were still going strong, “she was so happy, you would have thought [Robinson] gave her a Christmas gift.”
Barack, for his part, claimed he was largely unaware of the speculation.
“These are the kinds of things I just miss,” he said. “I don’t even know this stuff is going on and then somebody will mention it to me, and I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’”
Michelle has repeatedly addressed the rampant speculation surrounding her marriage in a spate of podcast interviews, blaming the whispers on their age and her newfound independence.
“The fact that people don’t see me going out on a date with my husband sparks rumors of the end of our marriage,” she told NPR’s “Wild Card” podcast host Rachel Martin in one interview.
“It’s like, ‘OK, so we don’t Instagram every minute of our lives. We are 60. We’re 60, y’all’.”
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