Michelle Obama says she wasn't happy with Barack for 10 of their 30 years they've been married, because marriage is 'hard'

• Michelle Obama discussed her marriage in a CBS interview.
• She said for 10 of her 30 year marriage to former President Barack Obama they didn't get on.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama has described some of the challenges she has experienced during her marriage to former President Barack Obama.

"We've been married for 30 years," Obama said in an interview Thursday with Gayle King on CBS. "If I fell out with him for 10, and we had a great 20 years, I'd take those odds anytime," Obama said.

Obama made the remarks in response to a question from King about her recent claim that for several years of her marriage she "couldn't stand" her husband.

The former first lady and author went on to discuss the challenges of marriage.

"In this day and age, marriage is more about the dress, and the dresses, and the proposal, and the honeymoon and all the stuff around it. And young people aren't ready for the real of marriage," she told King.

"A lot of young people quit on marriage over things that are just a part of the commitment," she said.

"I share these things because marriage is hard," Obama said. "It's incumbent upon us — people who have had successful marriages — to be really honest about the fact that making a commitment to be with someone means you compromise, and compromise ain't always fun," she said.

"And don't add kids into the mix because they really mess up your life," joked Obama, who has two daughters with her husband.

It echoes a similar claim in December 2022, when Obama said "there were 10 years where I couldn't stand my husband" while her daughters were young.

Michelle Obama met Barack in a law firm in Chicago where she was assigned to mentor him, and were married in 1992. They brought up their daughters Malia, 24, and Sasha, 21, during Barack Obama's two terms in the White House.