Michelle Obama is well aware of the comments people are making about her marriage to former President Barack Obama.
The former first lady spoke with NPR’s Rachel Martin on “Wild Card” about her and her husband’s fame and how everything they do and say — or don’t do and say — is reported on as a result.
Rumors that she and Barack Obama are divorcing began circulating online after she did not attend President Donald Trump’s inauguration, as well as former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral.
“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 said. “It’s like, ‘OK, so we don’t Instagram every minute of our lives. We are 60. We’re 60, y’all.’”
Adding, “You just are not going to know what we’re doing every minute of the day.”
The couple, who have been married for 32 years, share daughters Malia, 26, and Sasha, 24.
Michelle Obama added in her NPR interview that while she knows her family is considered “famous,” at their age they “don’t take selfies” or post too much about their personal lives.
“Barack was joking, ‘You don’t even take pictures of anything we do.’ I was like, ‘I’m not thinking about a picture,’” she said, noting she’s in the present moment. “I’m here.”
When it came to deciding not to attend the inauguration or the late Carter’s funeral, it came down to putting herself first. She shared that one of the major decisions she made this year was to stay put and not attend “all the things that I’m supposed to attend.”
“That was a part of me using my ambition to say, ‘Let me define what I want to do, apart from what I’m supposed to do, what the world expects of me.’ And I have to own that. Those are my choices,” she said.
She said that whatever backlash she received, she “had to sit in it and own it.”
“But I didn’t regret it,” Michelle Obama continued. “It’s my life now, and I can say that.”
This isn’t the first time that Michelle Obama has spoken out about divorce rumors. Back in April on an episode of the “Work in Progress with Sophia Bush” podcast, where she echoed her decision to say “no” to things she didn’t want to do.
“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. 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.”
And while Michelle Obama noted in her NPR interview that she and Barack Obama don’t take selfies, they recently shared a rare family photo for Sasha’s birthday.
Both Michelle and Barack Obama wished their youngest daughter a happy birthday by posting the same photo on their Instagram pages.
The couple also wished each other a happy Mother’s and Father’s Day with sweet messages on their social media.
The former president, on his end, has yet to comment on the divorce rumors.
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