(The Hill) — Former President Barack Obama says exiting the White House helped give his marriage to Michelle Obama a boost.
The 44th president was asked in a Tuesday interview with “CBS Mornings” co-host Nate Burleson about comments the former first lady had made about not liking her husband for roughly “10 years” of their union.
“How do you get back in good graces?” Burleson asked Obama to laughs from the ex-commander-in-chief.
“Let me just say this: It sure helps to be out of the White House and to have a little more time with her,” Obama replied.
In an interview last month with Gayle King on “CBS Mornings,” Michelle Obama opened up about her relationship.
“We’ve been married for 30 years,” she told King. “If I fell out with him for 10 (years,) and we had a great 20 years, I’d take those odds anytime.”
The Obamas tied the knot in 1992.
The 61-year-old former president said Tuesday that the couple’s children, Sasha, 21, and Malia, 24, having grown up also helped his marriage.
“Michelle, when our girls were growing up, that was priority No. 1, 2, 3 and 4,” the former chief executive, who left office in 2017, said.
“So I did not fully appreciate — I think as engaged of a father as I was — the degree of stress and tension for her, knowing not just that me and Michelle were under scrutiny and in this strange environment, but that we were raising our daughters in a kind of situation that just wasn’t normal,” he said.
“Now that they’re doing good, she is a little more forgiving of all my flaws,” Obama added with a grin.
“What she’s told me is, ‘Looking back, you did OK as a dad.’ And if I passed that test, she’ll forgive me, most of my other foibles.”