Michelle Obama reveals “angry” fights with former President Barack Obama led her to seek marriage counseling even before they tied the knot.
In her new memoir, Becoming, the former First Lady said she didn’t think she had anything in common with Barack.
Michelle admitted she and Barack fought often. “I don’t think we have anything in common. My thoughts trailed off there. As a measure of frustration, I drew a long emphatic gash across the rest of the page,” she wrote.
Michelle revealed she has an anger management problem that was so severe, it felt like “a kind of fireball running up my spine and exploding in the moment.”
“I tend to yell when I’m angry. When something sets me off, the feeling can be intensely physical,” she writes.
She said the arguing began even before they got married.
The couple fought about whether to tie the knot, and they fought about the wedding planning. — Like most men, Barack wasn’t interested in the fine details of weddings.
Barack and Michelle tied the knot in 1992. By the following year, the couple was in marriage counseling — but it wouldn’t be their last time sitting on the therapist’s sofa over their 26 year marriage.
She said Barack was not in favor of marriage counseling. He is somewhat austere by nature, and he thought a marriage counselor was a waste of his time.
“Sitting down in front of a stranger struck him as uncomfortable, if not a tad dramatic,” the First Lady wrote of her husband.
Realizing that the problem was Michelle, the therapist changed her daily routines and encouraged her to exercise to provide an outlet for her anger.
Michelle said she started exercising regularly and setting dinner on the table by 6:30 p.m. — whether her husband was seated at the table or not.
“We didn’t wait for Dad,” Michelle wrote. “It was his job to catch up to us.”
Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming is on bookstore shelves today (Nov. 13).
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