Divorce rumors have bubbled up again, as glaring signs that Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s marriage won’t last have surfaced. Barack went out to dinner with his daughters, Malia Obama and Sasha Obama, at the restaurant Anajak Thai in Los Angeles on March 4. The Obama sisters showed up to the restaurant together, but what was most notable was that Barack showed up solo — sans Michelle. The former POTUS went out for a more public appearance the following day, which really had people buzzing about the status of his marriage.
BACKGRID
Barack attended the Los Angeles Clippers game against the Detroit Pistons on March 5 at Intuit Dome. He sat with team owner and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who was with his wife. It was a notable appearance for Barack, who was gifted a custom Clippers jersey with the number “44” on the back during a break in action. Once news spread that he went to the game solo, people started speculating that Barack and Michelle were having marital woes. “They on the outs,” one X, formerly Twitter, user wrote. Others floated theories about possible reasons for the rumored dissolution of their marriage. Meanwhile, various members of the Twitterati pointed out that it has never been unusual for Barack to catch some hoops without his wife.
The same day that Barack went to the Clippers game, Michelle was busy advertising plans of her own. Taking to her Instagram Stories, she announced that she would be a guest at the South By Southwest festival along with her brother, Craig Robinson. Earlier, divorce rumors hit overdrive when Michelle was not by Barack’s side for multiple high-profile events.
Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s transparent attempt to fight off divorce rumors
Divorce speculation arose when Michelle Obama did not attend Jimmy Carter’s funeral with Barack Obama on January 9. All the other living presidents were present with their spouses, but Michelle had a prior engagement, as it was reported she was vacationing in Hawaii at the time. Her absence raised more than a few eyebrows. “Hearing serious talk that the reason Michelle isn’t at the funeral isn’t that she wasn’t invited, but that she and Barack are on the outs,” political pundit Jack Posobiec tweeted at the time.
Later that month, rumors of a split continued when Michelle decided to sit out Donald Trump’s inauguration. Barack went to the festivities, along with former president George W. Bush and his wife, Laura Bush. The office of the Obamas offered a statement about her nonattendance but provided no explanation for it. “Former First Lady Michelle Obama will not attend the upcoming inauguration,” the office simply stated, per CBS News. Michelle’s continuous absences had people chattering.
The following month, Michelle and Barack attempted to squash divorce rumors by making coordinated Valentine’s Day posts. They both uploaded the same selfie together to Instagram on February 14 and gushed over one another in their captions. “Thirty-two years together and you still take my breath away,” Barack wrote in his post. “If there’s one person I can always count on, it’s you, @BarackObama. You’re my rock. Always have been. Always will be,” Michelle wrote in her caption. Before sharing those posts, the Obamas were last seen together in January when Barack tweeted a photo of the couple celebrating Michelle’s birthday at the Aubergine restaurant in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.
