Michelle Obama: My Decision To Skip Trump Inauguration Was Met with ‘Such Ridicule and Criticism’

Obama: “My decision to skip the inauguration, you know, what people don’t realize, or my decision to make choices at the beginning of this year that suited me were met with such ridicule and criticism. Like, people couldn’t believe that I was saying no for any other reason that they had assumed that my marriage was falling apart, you know? It’s like, while I’m here really trying to own my life and intentionally practice making the choice that was right for me, and it took everything in my power to not do the thing that was right, or that was perceived does right, but do the thing that was right for me, that was hard thing for me to do. I had to basically trick myself out of it, and it started with not having anything to wear. I mean, I had affirmatively, ‘cause I’m always prepared for any funeral, any thing, I have — I walk around with the right dress, I travel with clothes just in case something pops off. So I was like, if I’m not going to do this thing, I gotta tell my team, I don’t even want to have a dress ready, right? Because it’s so easy to just say, ‘Let me do the right thing.’”
HENSON: “But then you become a shock absorber, and that’s what women are. They’re shock absorbers. And that’s exhausting, and it’s not healthy.”
Obama: “Yeah.”
HENSON: “It is not healthy. You had to be shock absorbers for your husband, for your children, for your mom, for your family, your loved ones, because of where you were sitting in the public eye. That’s not fair to you. When do you ever get to live for you? I applaud you. I am — I’m happy that you are taking care of yourself in the way they you need to.”
Obama: “Yeah.”