Michelle and Barack Obama, the former US presidential couple, have been married since 1992. Their daughter Malia was born six years later and her sister Sasha a further three years later.
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However, if it had been up to the former US head of state, the family would have been even bigger.
Barack Obama wanted a third child
Indeed, as Michelle Obama has made public in a podcast in March, her husband expressed his desire to have another child after the birth of their two daughters.
‘We should have a third,’ the bestselling author quoted her husband's statement. She did not say exactly when the conversation took place, but she did confirm that she was completely against it.
Barack was like, ‘We should have a third,’ and I was like, ‘Dude.’
Two good sleepers, I'd call it too. You know, I'm thinking we're gonna get a crazy one.
The discussion was over when Melania said no, and so the family of four stayed that way. Now, Malia and Sasha, 26 and 23 respectively, have come along way since their days roaming around the corridors of the White House. The older daughter is pursuing a career in film, while the youngest is studying.
Michelle Obama's path to motherhood wasn't easy
In her memoir entitled Becoming, published in 2018, she explains that the path to motherhood was not easy for the trained lawyer. The Obama couple harboured a desire to have children that simply could not be fulfilled at the beginning. There was even at least one miscarriage, as the 61-year-old wrote in her memoir:
I felt like I had failed. At the time, I didn't realise how common miscarriages were because we so often hide them.
At the age of 34, the US American from Chicago realised that her biological clock was also ticking faster and faster. The couple decided to try IVF and had the two girls. The woman, who many would like to see as president, addresses such intimate topics for a specific reason. In a 2018 interview to promote her memoir, she explained:
I think the worst thing we women can do to each other is not tell the truth about our bodies and how they work.
Marital problems during the presidency
Michelle and Barack Obama have been known to have a strong and stable marriage over the decades, despite all the hardships they have both faced. Even though a marriage seems to be rock solid on the outside, it doesn't always run smoothing behind closed doors. Michelle admitted that it was hard when Barack Obama was climbing the career ladder and was a workaholic. She once said of this time:
It was 10 years in which I couldn't stand my husband.
Recently the couple have faced an unfair amount of gossip surrounding their marriage—or rather, its end. These unfounded rumours grew to unbelievable heights, and were fueled by the fact that both Michelle and Barack Obama were seen attending events separately.
The fact that they were rare seen together turned into speculation over the state of their relationship, and finally the 61-year-old former First Lady had to publicly put an end to the whispers. She recently appeared on the Work in Progress podcast with One Tree Hill star Sophia Bush where she was talking about how she has been pursuing her own opportunities since leaving the White House. She then cleared the rumours once and for all when she said:
We as women, I think we struggle with disappointing 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. That this couldn't be a grown woman just making a set of decisions herself. But that's what that's what society does to us.
This article has been translated from Oh!MyMag DE.
Read more:
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Sources used:
People: Michelle Obama Says Barack Wanted a Third Child but She Wasn't on Board: 'We’re Gonna Get a Crazy One'
TV Today: Michelle Obama: Künstliche Befruchtung nach Fehlgeburt
N-TV: "Du tust mir so leid" Michelle Obama sagte Nein zu drittem Kind
Stern: So wird Michelle Obama mit bösen Ehe-Gerüchten fertig
USA Today: Michelle Obama hits back at divorce rumors that start when she makes 'a choice for myself'
