Barack and Michelle Obama have date night at George Clooney's Broadway play amid divorce rumors
Barack and Michelle Obama attended Tuesday night's performance of George Clooney's Broadway show, The Independent can reveal.
The couple, in a rare joint public appearance, dined at The Lowell Hotel restaurant in Midtown Manhattan before the show, multiple reports indicated.
Michelle was seen in a black lacy midi dress with her hair swept back in a long braid, while Barack was seen in a standard dark suit.
Flanked by Secret Service members, the two were then ushered into a Black SUV and whisked away to the Winter Garden Theater to see Clooney as Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck. Their attendance was confirmed by a representative for the production.
The stage adaptation of his 2005 film of the same name marked the A-lister's Broadway debut and garnered him a 2025 Tony Award nomination.
The Obamas have been the subject of divorce rumors for several months following Michelle's absence from a handful of high-profile events at the start of the year, including former President Jimmy Carter's funeral and President Donald Trump's inauguration.
She recently opened up about her decision to skip the events in an April episode of her podcast, IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson.
'My decision to skip the inauguration, what people don't realize, or my decision to make choices at the beginning of this year that suited me were met with such ridicule and criticism,' she said. 'People couldn't believe that I was saying no for any other reason, that they had to assume that my marriage was falling apart, you know.'
She reiterated that she simply didn't go to the inauguration because it was the best decision for her.
'I'm here really trying to own my life and intentionally practice making the choice that was right for me,' she explained. 'And it took everything in my power to not do the thing that was right, or that was perceived as right, but do the thing that was right for me. That was a hard thing for me to do.'
The former First Lady also spoke about the divorce rumors during an appearance on Sophia Bush's Work in Progress podcast earlier in April.
'The interesting thing is that, when I say 'no,' for the most part people are like, 'I get it, and I'm OK,'' she said.
'That's the thing that we as women, I think we struggle with disappointing people. I mean, so much so that this year people couldn't even fathom that I was making a choice for myself that they had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing.'
'This couldn't be a grown woman just making a set of decisions for herself, right?' she added. 'But that's what society does to us. We start actually, finally going, 'What am I doing? Who am I doing this for?' And if it doesn't fit into the sort of stereotype of what people think we should do, then it gets labeled as something negative and horrible.'
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