Michelle Obama revealed that her husband Barack Obama told her ‘You’re next up’ after her mother died.
Michelle, 61, shared on the IMO podcast with her brother Craig Robinson on Wednesday about the candid reaction from former President Barack Obama following Marian Robinson’s passing.
‘I guess if anything, with mom’s loss, I think that – thank God you’re my big brother and I have a husband who’s older,’ she said.
She revealed, ‘Barack said something like, “Well, now it’s your turn.” And I responded, “I’m not quite ready for that. It’s your turn and Craig’s turn.” I told him, “I’m leaving that responsibility to you both.”‘
Marian Robinson passed away at 86 in May of last year, as Michelle posted on social media. Their father, Fraser C Robinson, passed away in 1991 at the age of 55.
‘That’s really when you become an adult, is when your parents are not in that spot of managing and maintaining,’ she continued on Wednesday’s podcast.
‘But that’s going to happen at some point where each of us, in our own lives, we become the parent, we become the convener, we become the glue.’
The brother and sister duo admitted on the show that the positions were ‘big shoes to fill’ after losing both of their parents.
‘It’s a major shift in your life,’ Michelle continued. ‘I don’t care how old you get. Mom and dad are mom and dad. Even when I was taking care of mom, I still gotta listen to her. I can sort of boss her around but in the end, she’s my mother.’
‘There’s a comfort level in that, knowing that no matter how wise or experienced I am in the world, mom always knew more.’
Her candid discussion regarding their mother’s death came as Michelle revealed she had began going to therapy to help transition into the ‘next phase’ of her life.
On The Jay Shetty Podcast, Michelle discussed being an ’empty nester’ and admitting to getting ‘some help’ as she heads into her 60s.
‘At this phase of my life, I’m in therapy right now because I’m transitioning, you know? I’m 60 years old, I’ve finished a really hard thing in my life with my family intact, I’m an empty nester, my girls are in—you know, they’ve been launched,’ she said.
Michelle said that she’s got ‘other voices’ to talk to and a ‘new person that’s getting to know me’ as she works through things.
Being out of public service, she now finds herself in a situation where ‘every choice that I’m making is completely mine.’
‘I now don’t have the excuse of, “Well, my kids need this” or “My husband needs that” or “The country needs that.”‘
She says that therapy is a ‘tune-up for this next phase’ in an attempt to ‘unwind some old habits and ‘sort through some old guilt,’ along with focusing on her relationship with her mother.
‘So, I’m getting that tune-up for this next phase because I believe this is a whole ‘nother phase in life for me. And I now have the wisdom to know—let me go get some coaching while I’m doing it,’ she said.
Michelle encouraged anyone who needs mental health services to try and get access to a therapist.
‘I am an advocate of it. Everybody needs to find their form of it, the best way they can,’ she said.
Last week, Michelle set the record straight after speculation over the former first couple’s recent public appearances during a podcast with entrepreneur and investor Steven Bartlett.
‘If I were having problems with my husband, everybody would know about it,’ she said, laughing.
Bartlett mentioned how the media had speculated about pair’s future after she skipped out on Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The host said her absence left some believing ‘there’s an issue with you and Barack, there’s a divorce coming.’
‘Let me tell you, he would know it,’ Obama said, directing a finger at her brother, Craig Robinson. ‘And everybody would know it.’
Obama was promoting her own podcast that she hosts with Robinson.
She added that she’s ‘not a martyr’ and joked about how she would address such marital strife publicly.
‘I would be problem-solving in public, like, “Let me tell you what he did,”‘ she said.
Robinson took the joke one step further: ‘If they were having a problem, I’d be doing a podcast with him.’
Michelle acknowledged that marriage is ‘hard’ for her and the former president but added that ‘I wouldn’t trade it,’ calling President Obama, ‘as the young people say… my person.’
‘The beauty of my husband and our partnership is that neither one of us was ever really, ever going to quit at it, because that’s not who we are. And I know that about him. He knows that about me.’
She said that young people give up on marriage too soon, in part because they see a false image of a perfect union between herself and her husband.
Michelle also recently addressed those who have called her ‘angry’ in the past as she discussed the ‘angry black woman’ trope.
‘The first label they put on us as black women is that we are angry,’ she said earlier this month. ‘And the irony is, like, yeah. I am probably less light than many of my white female friends.’
She added of the way the media has portrayed her: ‘The first thing that some female journalist said is that I emasculating him just by sort of trying to tell the truth about what my life was, right?’
