Michelle Obama says she 'couldn't stand' Barack for 10 years after the birth of their daughters. Here's why she stuck it out.

• Michelle Obama said there were 10 years of her marriage where she "couldn't stand" Barack.
• When the girls were young, she said she'd start "measuring" tasks and wanting them all to be 50/50.

Marriage isn't about splitting tasks 50/50 or even liking each other all of the time, according to Michelle Obama. In fact, she said on the Revolt x Michelle Obama special, she endured a whole decade of tension with her husband, Barack, when their daughters were young.

"People think I'm being catty for saying this — it's like, there were 10 years where I couldn't stand my husband. Ten years! And guess when it happened? When those kids were little," Obama, 58, said.

The Obamas' daughters, now 21 and 24, were 7 and 10 years old when they first lived in the White House.

On the TV special, hosted by Angie Martinez on December 14, Obama talked about how she'd start "measuring" tasks between her and Barack, like how many diapers each changed or how much time Barack spent at the gym.

Little kids "have demands. They don't talk. They're poor communicators. They cry all the time. They're irrational. They're needy. And you love them more than anything. And so you can't blame them," Obama, author of the new book "The Light We Carry," said. "So you turn that ire on each other."

She said that at first, she was frustrated that things didn't feel even. But then she realized "marriage isn't 50/50, ever."

"But guess what?" she continued. "Ten years; we've been married 30. I would take 10 bad years over 30 — it's just how you look at it. People give up — 'Five years; I can't take it.'"

Obama, who's now been married to Barack for 30 years, said it's important to "know your person" in order to get through those stretches of tension.

"Do you like him? I mean, you could be mad at him, but do you still look at him and go, 'I'm not happy with you, but I respect you. I don't agree with you, but you're still a kind, smart person,'" she said to the host and other panelists, including Tina Lawson, Kelly Rowland, H.E.R., and Winnie Harlow.

"The feelings are gonna change over time," Obama continued. But once the infatuation fades, "people wanna give up on it. But now you're in work."