Staying at home while your husband makes official appearances is one thing, but an affair with one of the biggest stars in the world? These are the rumors that have been dogging the Obamas.
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00:00Staying at home while your husband makes official appearances is one thing, but an affair with
00:05one of the biggest stars in the world? These are the rumors that have been dogging the
00:09Obamas.
00:11Rumors of a possible split between Barack and Michelle Obama heated up in early 2025,
00:17thanks in particular to one particular social media post on January 17th. Barack captioned
00:22a photo of the two of them holding hands and sitting across from each other.
00:25"'Happy birthday to the love of my life, Michelle Obama. You fill every room with warmth, wisdom,
00:30humor, and grace, and you look good doing it.'"
00:33While the two were all smiles, there may have been more to the story. For one thing, it
00:37struck some observers as odd that they were sitting so far apart rather than right next
00:42to each other. And as one person replied,
00:44"'If looks could kill, you'd be a weapon of mass destruction.'"
00:48Neither Barack nor Michelle have publicly acknowledged any serious problems in their
00:52marriage, but that hasn't stopped rumors from swirling, especially when they appear
00:57in public or on social media. That was certainly the case on January 18th when Barack dined
01:02out at the Italian restaurant Osteria Masa in Washington, D.C., without Michelle. According
01:07to Page Six, he was at least received warmly by the other patrons, with one person shouting,
01:12"'We miss you.'"
01:14And that wasn't the only recent occasion that Barack was out and about on his own. Perhaps
01:18the most high-profile instance was on January 9th, when Michelle didn't attend former President
01:23Jimmy Carter's funeral, while Barack did. According to CNN, she had a scheduling conflict
01:28and was vacationing in Hawaii at the time. Just a week and a half later, Michelle didn't
01:33attend Donald Trump's inauguration, either. A source close to the couple told Page Six,
01:38"'You cannot tell Michelle what to do. No one can.'"
01:41On January 22nd, Meghan McCain addressed the topic of the Obamas on her podcast Citizen
01:47As she told Puck journalist Tara Palmieri,
01:49"'I have been hearing this rumor that the Obamas are getting a divorce by reputable
01:54people. I'm not talking about TMZ.'"
01:57Palmieri acknowledged that she'd heard the same and added that she'd been told that they
02:00were living separate lives. She also explained,
02:03"'I am not at home with them. But it's not really surprising that at this phase of their
02:07life — and Michelle clearly has very little interest — she's always hated politics.
02:12She did not really like being first lady.'"
02:14One of the stranger rumors about the Obamas is the claim that Barack had a romantic relationship
02:19with Jennifer Aniston. The story reportedly originated with an August 2024 InTouch cover
02:25that promised,
02:26"'The truth about Jen and Barack.'"
02:28The magazine claimed that the two were obsessed with each other and that Barack had turned
02:32his back on Michelle. This story got even weirder when Aniston herself addressed it
02:37during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that October.
02:39"'So the truth about Jen and Barack is that there is no truth. It is untrue.'"
02:45Aniston also revealed that she knew Michelle better than she knew Barack, having met him
02:48only once. This rumor heated up again in January 2025 when a leaked direct message from someone
02:54reportedly close to Aniston emerged in which the actress supposedly admitted that the affair
03:00was real. But neither she nor the Obamas have publicly confirmed any such thing.
03:09Here's what's next!