'Touch and go': Barack and Michelle Obama finally address persistent divorce rumours during podcast appearance
Speculation about the Obamas' marriage has been a constant since the former president's reign as US Commander-in-Chief.
Photos snapped of the then-president laughing and taking selfies with Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela while Michelle looked on with an unimpressed expression, took the internet by storm, sparking accusations of infidelity.
More recently, the 63-year-old was accused of having an affair with Friends star Jennifer Aniston in a story published in a gossip magazine. The rumours gained such traction that Aniston had to publicly shut them down, saying it was "absolutely untrue" during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in October last year.
The Obamas sat down on the latest episode of Michelle's podcast IMO, that she hosts alongside her brother Craig Robinson, where they shut down the divorce rumours in jest.
'He made time in his busy schedule to come on. We are honoured,' Michelle told listeners before Robinson, chimed in jokingly, 'Wait, you guys like each other?'
Barack then joked Michelle "took me back".
"It was touch and go for a while," he said.
When Robinson said it was nice to see the couple in the same room, Michelle also played into the suggestions the pair were headed for divorce due to the fact they had not been seen in the same room together often in recent years.
"I know because when we aren't, folks think we're divorced," she said.
On a serious note, Michelle insisted she had never considered walking away from her husband during their more than three-decade-long marriage.
'There hasn't been one moment in our marriage where I have thought about quitting my man,' Michelle insisted on the show.
'We've had some really hard times and we've had a lot of fun times, a lot of adventures and I've become a better person because of the man I'm married to.'
The former president became visibly emotional, responding: "Okay, don't make me cry now right at the beginning of the show".
"Don't let me start tearing up now," he said.
Barack said he had been unaware of the divorce speculation until someone would mention it to him.
'These are the kinds of things I just miss,' he said.
'I don't even know this stuff is going on and then somebody will mention it to me, and I'm like, 'What are you talking about?''
The Obamas are approaching their 33rd anniversary in October, after getting married in 1992.
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