Michelle and Barack Obama navigate a new phase of marriage as empty-nesters

Michelle Obama said the family is in a 'new phase' now that Malia, 27, and Sasha, 24, are grown and living on their own. 'They’re out. We’re looking at each other like, ‘Hey, I remember you,’' she told listeners, adding that the shift "takes time" as the couple readjusts to being "just me and him." She noted Barack, 64, is figuring out this chapter too and that much of the hard work in their marriage came from parenting: "When those beautiful, lovely kids we all want show up with their own agendas and their own needs, it’s the first major joint project you have to do together." Married 33 years, they have attended couples therapy and Michelle urged partners not to quit when relationships get difficult: "you can go through ten bad years in a 30 year marriage and that’s still great odds." The pair first met at a law firm in the late 1980s and married in 1992.

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