As she continues to face rumors of divorce, Michelle Obama's own brother, Craig Robinson, is sharing his past doubts about Barack Obama.
In an episode of their new podcast IMO, Robinson recalled his first impression of the future president, and it wasn't good.
"And I've told this story many times about when you first started dating Barack. So Mich starts to date Barack, and we don't know who this guy is, we're just like, 'Barack? Who's got a name like Barack?' And I'm thinking it's gonna last a month like most of your relationships," Robinson said.
"That’s not true. I’ve had many a long-term boyfriend,” Obama replied.
The Obamas met at the Chicago law firm Sidley Austin. They married in 1992 and had two daughters. Michelle Obama has admitted to feeling conflicted about putting her personal ambitions on hold to raise a family.
"Something had to give and it was my aspirations and dreams. I made that concession, not because he said, 'You have to quit your job.' It felt like, 'I can't do all of this. So I have to tone down my aspirations. I have to dial it back," she confessed in her 2020 documentary Becoming.
The former First Lady has also been open about using marriage counseling to work through rough patches.
Her husband recently acknowledged that their marriage was in a "deficit" after years spent in public life.
Rumors of divorce began swirling in January after Michelle skipped two high-profile events, Jimmy Carter's funeral and President Trump's inauguration.
After weeks of dodging the speculation, Michelle Obama dismissed the chatter in a podcast appearance with actress Sophia Bush.
“And that’s the thing that we as women struggle with — disappointing people,” she said.
“So much so that people, 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.”
In the same interview, Obama said she felt liberated to put herself first and "make some big girl decisions."
"Now is the time for me to start asking myself these hard questions of, ‘Who do I truly want to be every day?’ And that changes," she said.
"So, who do I want to have a lunch with? How long do I want to stay in a place? Do I want to travel? If a girlfriend calls and says, ‘Let’s go here,’ I can say, ‘Yes, I can.’ And I’m trying to do that more and more."
