Barack and Michelle Obama call each other ‘counterbalance’ in personal interview on marriage, legacy

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama opened up about their marriage, time in the White House and shared journey in a joint interview ahead of the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.

The conversation revisited their nearly 34-year marriage, years in Washington and the meaning of returning to the South Side neighborhood where their story began. The couple also reflected on how their partnership has shaped both their personal choices and public lives over the decades.

The interview, conducted at the Obamas’ office inside the new presidential center on Chicago’s South Side, comes as the couple marks the public opening of the sprawling campus that houses the Obama Presidential Library and Museum, located in the same neighborhood where they met, married and raised daughters Malia, 27, and Sasha, 25.

Michelle Obama calls husband her 'ballast' in marriage reflection

Asked how they see their decades-long partnership, Michelle Obama said the two have always balanced each other out.

“My husband is always thinking about reflecting the light on other people,” she said, cozied up next to him on the couch of his office at the new Obama Presidential Center.

“I am so proud of how my husband showed up in that role, how he shows up every day,” she said.

“We are each other’s counterbalance,” she said.

“The truth is, I probably would have been someone who stayed more put. I think I would have had a beautiful life here, but it would have been smaller.” She credited her husband with pushing her toward a bigger life than she might have chosen for herself, saying he gave her “the courage” to do more with her Harvard law degree than practice law.

“He was my ballast,” she said. “He was like, ‘I got you.’ And however hard it’s been, the ups and downs, he’s got me.”

Barack Obama, in turn, said he knew early on that his wife had the qualities to make him better.

“I knew almost immediately, and looks like I made a pretty good bet, that this was a one-of-a-kind woman with the integrity and character, smarts and values to make me better,” he said.

“And she grounds and anchors me. It’s worked out a’ight.”

Earlier in the conversation, Obama downplayed his own role in the new center, joking that his wife had to talk him out of giving credit to Gandhi instead. “He’s completely uncomfortable with this being about him,” Michelle Obama said, calling the center “my husband’s vision from top to bottom.”

Obama reflects on White House life as a ‘penitentiary’

Asked what he missed most from his time in office, Barack Obama said the White House offered camaraderie but came with real limitations.

“It is also very confining,” he said. “I think it was Bill Clinton who called it the crown jewel of the federal penitentiary system… It is the bubble inside the bubble.” He said he did not miss the pomp and circumstance, but missed the people who kept their sense of humor through the demands of the job.

Michelle Obama described the years more fondly, recalling that their daughters lived in the White House longer than in any other home growing up, and that the family marked Malia’s Fourth of July birthday there with backyard fireworks.

She said the home also held the family’s “last memories” with her mother, Marian Robinson, who has since died.

Obamas reflect on presidency, symbolism and future leadership

The couple also reflected on the symbolism of Barack Obama’s election as the nation’s first Black president, with Obama saying he hoped it would change how children viewed the limits placed on them, and predicting the US will elect a female president “sometime soon” in his lifetime.

Michelle ended the interview by praising her husband’s leadership style and character.

“I think that what Barack offered this country was a mature president, was a highly intelligent president, was a selfless president. The hope and the joy that people felt during our administration had to do with the character of this leader. He made this country proud in a very unique way.”