Michelle Obama reveals husband Barack's bizarre obsession amid ongoing divorce rumors

Daily Mail​

20 hours ago

Barack Obama has enjoyed incredible success throughout his lengthy career...and now wife Michelle has revealed the bizarre obsession that may have helped.
The former first lady says her husband is superstitious, that he carries around a pocket full of trinkets every day and considers them his good luck charms.
Michelle let her husband's secret slip while chatting with basketball coach Dawn Staley on the latest episode of IMO, the podcast the former FLOTUS hosts with her brother Craig Robinson.
Michelle, 61, was discussing her stack of homemade bracelets with Dawn, who said they were given to her as a good luck charm by a pediatric cancer patient she had visited, when Michelle chimed in.
The mom-of-two revealed that Barack Obama, 64, has a drawer full of good luck charms - and he takes one with him on a daily basis.
'My husband has the same thing, Barack,' the podcast host responded to Dawn's story.
'Over the course of his first campaign, people come and give them their lucky charms, you know, could be a little rabbit's foot, a little, Buddha or whatever it was,' she recalled.
'But so many people were praying for him and would give him something precious to him and he kept all of those things, you know, he has a drawer full of them [and] even to this day now he takes a few of them - every day - and puts them in his pocket,' she continued.
'You know, just a mix of perspective and it's a blessing.'
Obama is known for his love of trinkets, sharing his array of keepsakes in a 2016 interview.
In the interview on YouTube, while he was nearing the end of his second term, the then-President said he keeps a bowl full of his good luck charms in the White House and likes to take a few around with him.
Speaking to YouTuber Ingrid Nilsen at the time, he said they gave him inspiration if he is ever feeling 'tired or discouraged'.
He showed off four of his lucky charms in the 35-minute long interview, first showing off rosary beads given to him by Pope Francis.
He also showed a small statue of the Buddha that he was given by a Buddhist, and a lucky poker chip handed to him by a handlebar mustachioed biker during his first campaign.
'This is a lucky poker chip that's metal that this biker gave me,' he said. 'He was like bald and had a handlebar mustache and a bunch of tats. This is when I was in Iowa in 2007. He said, "this is my lucky poker chip. You can have it."
He also had a Hindu monkey god Hanuman and a Coptic cross he was given in Ethiopia.
While he claimed he is 'not that superstitious,' the former president said the remind him of the people he met during his campaign.
'If I feel tired or I feel discouraged sometimes then I can reach into my pocket and say "that's something I can overcome because somebody gave me this privilege to work on these issues that affect them. I better get back to work."'
Michelle's peak into her husband's daily life comes as the rumors continue to swirl about the state of their marriage.
In July, the pair - how have been married since 1992, finally addressed the state of their marriage - after months of speculation that the couple's relationship is on the rocks.
The Obama's wasted no time in addressing the rumors of their separation when he appeared on IMO.
'What, you guys like each other?' Robinson joked, before Michelle replied: 'Oh yeah, the rumor mill.'
'She took me back!' Obama light-heartedly chimed in, adding: 'It was touch and go for awhile.'
The former first lady added that it is nice to be in the same room as her husband, sassily telling her brother: 'When we aren't, folks think we're divorced.'
Michelle then made a heartfelt admission about her relationship with her husband of almost 33 years.
'There hasn't been one moment in our marriage where I thought about quitting my man,' she said passionately.
She continued: 'And we've had some really hard times. So we had a lot of fun times, a lot of adventures, and I have become a better person because of the man I'm married to.'
Concerns over the Obamas' relationship has picked up over the past year, fueled in part by Michelle's decision to skip several high-profile events, including Jimmy Carter's funeral and Donald Trump's second presidential inauguration.