“The fact that people don’t see me going out on a date with my husband sparks rumours of the end of our marriage. It’s like, ‘OK, so we don’t Instagram every minute of our lives. We are 60. We’re 60, y’all,’” Michelle said, according to The Independent. “You just are not gonna know what we’re doing every minute of the day,” she added.

Rumours of a rift between the Obamas first gained traction earlier this year when Michelle did not attend former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral or Donald Trump’s second inauguration in January. At the time, she defended her decision, saying it was part of redefining her own priorities.

Michelle Obama shares picture of her two daughters – Malia and Sasha – with Barack Obama, the former US President (Photo: Instagram/@michelleobama)

“One of the major decisions I made this year was to stay put and not attend funerals and inaugurations and all the things that I’m supposed to attend,” she said. “That was a part of me using my ambition to say, ‘Let me define what I want to do, apart from what I’m supposed to do, what the world expects of me.’”

“Whatever the backlash was, I had to sit in it and own it. But I didn’t regret it, you know? It’s my life now, and I can say that, now.”

Michelle Obama has spoken earlier about stepping back from public life to focus on her own well-being. On the Work In Progress podcast with actress Sophia Bush, she spoke about how her priorities have shifted since leaving the White House. With her daughters now adults, she said, she finally feels free to make decisions for herself.

“I could have made a lot of these decisions years ago, but I didn’t give myself that freedom,” she admitted. “Maybe even as much as I let my kids live their own lives, I use their lives as an excuse for why I couldn’t do something.”