“We Went to Marriage Counselling” Michelle Obama Tells Oprah
Michelle Obama tells Oprah she went to marriage counselling with Barack to work through ‘tough times’ after Malia and Sasha were born and admits she found it hard raising a family.
“We Went to Marriage Counselling” Michelle Obama Tells Oprah
- Michelle Obama, 56, opened up about attending marriage counseling with husband Barack Obama, 58, during their relationship
- The presidential couple started therapy after their two daughters, Malia and Sasha, were born
- Obama said counseling taught her to be responsible for her own happiness
- She previously discussed therapy in her memoir, Becoming, and in interviews
- Obama revealed she has more ’emotional energy’ since her kids went to college
- Obama spoke with Oprah Winfrey at the 2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus Tour with WW at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York
Michelle and Barack Obama may seem like the perfect couple, but the former First Lady just revealed she and Barack Obama went for marriage counselling after Malia and Sasha were born to work through the tough times in their marriage.
Speaking with Oprah Winfrey , Michelle made this revelation in front of 15,000 people as part of the 2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus Tour with WW at the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, New York. She revealed the counselling helped her realize she was responsible for making herself happy, a fact she also revealed in her memoir Becoming.
“Sometimes you need an objective person to just hear you out,’ Obama began. ‘It taught me that I was responsible for my own happiness. I didn’t marry Barack for him to make me happy. No one can make me happy.
“If I’m going to show up equal in this partnership, I have to be able to make myself happy and so I had to stop focusing on what he wasn’t doing and start thinking about how to carve out the life that I wanted for myself, with or without Barack.
‘The more I succeeded in defining myself for myself, the better I was in my partnership.”

Oprah asked: ‘And you call [Barack] your soul affirming partner?
“Is it more so now in 28 years than earlier. Does it keep getting better? Or it’s more seasoned?’
Obama replied: ‘It’s all of that. And this is what I keep trying to tell young people. Marriage is hard and raising a family together is a hard thing. It takes a toll.”
Michelle revealed more about the hard times in her marriage and how friendship was something the both relied on.
Read Also: BBNaija Ceec’s Sport Line “Ceegar” Sold Out
Oprah asked Michelle what it’s like being empty nesters for the first time, and she answered without hesitation.
“It is so good, y’all,” she laughed. “No, it is really good,” she said playfully (wink, wink), then telling the audience to get their minds out of the gutter.
The first lady gushed about her marriage when Oprah brought up the sweet Instagram post that Barack Obama shared for Michelle’s birthday in January.
“In every scene, you are my star, @MichelleObama! Happy birthday, baby!” he wrote.
Cue the standing ovation!
Tag:We Went to Marriage Counselling” Michelle Obama