Barack Obama accepts presidency affected his relationship with wife Michelle: 'Was in a deep deficit'

Former US President Barack Obama has acknowledged that his relationship with his wife Michelle Obama had strained during the eight years he was leading the country. And now he is spending more time with his wife to compensate for all the lost time.

During a conversation with Hamilton College President Steven Tepper on Thursday, Obama, 63 said that “I was in a deep deficit with my wife", adding, "So I have been trying to dig myself out of that hole by occasionally doing fun things."

Obamas publicly accept trouble in marriage

This is not the first time that Obama, who has been married for 33 years has publicly accepted trouble in his marriage. In a 2023 interview with CBS Mornings, he said, “Let me just say this: It sure helps to be out of the White House and to have a little more time with her.”

Michelle Obama too had earlier said how she was focused on raising their daughters, Sasha and Malia, during the early years of Barack’s political rise and in the process she found herself shouldering the responsibility alone

"I couldn't stand my husband"

While speaking to Revolt TV IN 2022 she said, "People think I'm being catty by saying this — it's like, there were 10 years where I couldn't stand my husband. And guess when it happened? When those kids were little."

“People always ask me and Barack, how did we stay hopeful in, not just the eight years in the White House, but beyond? Because, let me tell you, there was a lot of negative energy flipping our way, a lot of rumors, a lot of gossip...," she further said.

Michelle in 2018 had accepted that the couple once went to a marriage counsellor to mend their relationship.

Affair Rumours

Recently there were rumours that their marriage was in doldrums and Obama was having an affair with Jennifer Aniston. The claims intensified when Michelle did not appear publicly with Obama at President Jimmy Carter’s funeral as well as Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Barack and Michelle met in the late 1980s at a Chicago law firm and got married in 1992.