Michelle Obama said it's a 'relief' that she and her family are no longer living in the White House
- Michelle Obama admitted it's a "relief" she and her family are no longer living in the White House.
- She added, though, that it was "beautiful" to recently return to hang her official portrait.
Former first lady Michelle Obama is glad she and her family are no longer living in the White House, telling Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday night that it's a "relief."
In an interview on "The Tonight Show," Fallon pointed out that Obama recently returned to the White House for the first time since her tenure as first lady. Obama responded that it was her first time back because she "wasn't invited" before now, adding, "Ooh, shade."
Fallon asked how it felt, to which she responded that they were "good when it was time to go," in 2016, but that the experience of being invited back to hang her and former President Barack Obama's official portraits was "beautiful."
"The next president is supposed to invite you back to hang them," Obama explained. "We were never invited back."
She said aside from a chance to hang the portraits, which have been done for a "long, long time," it was a chance for the staff to "reminisce."
"It's a ritual. So it was good to see everybody," Obama said, adding that it was special to reconnect with the staff that lived alongside her girls while they were growing up.
But Obama made it clear she never has dreams she's still living there, exclaiming, "Oh no!" when Fallon asked.
In fact, at President Joe Biden's inauguration, Obama recalled her husband mistakenly walking to the front of "somebody else's presidential motorcade," because the first car is always for the president.
Security then had to tell them that wasn't their car, and they had to walk past the presidential and vice presidential motorcade to get to their car in the back of the line.
"But the thing was, we were so glad to get in that back motorcade and to go home to our house," Obama said. "That's the progress of democracy. You do your time. You pass it on. You let the next president lead."
She continued: "It's kind of a relief."