Michelle Obama has finally opened up about her controversial decision to skip President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The former First Lady addressed her absence from the January event, which her husband Barack Obama attended, during Wednesday’s episode of her and her brother’s 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 skipped 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.”
Obama confessed how she “tricked herself” out of going to the event, which started with “not having anything to wear.”
“I’m always prepared for any funeral, anything,” she continued. “I walk around with the right dress, I travel with clothes just in case something pops off. So I was like, ‘If I’m not going to do this thing. I got to tell my team.’ I don’t even want to have a dress ready, right? Because it’s so easy to just say, ‘Let me do the right thing.’”
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