you are actually radiating, in white dress, in front of the wood paneling of the hotel Suite. With 1.80 meters, presence of Michelle Obama towered over her Entourage, which is by the way up to the Bodyguards in the Background, only women. “Hello, how nice that you are here,” she says with the voice that has the Carpool Karaoke singing. The 54-Year-old to Eight-inch-Stilettos-balanced, also white. You hurl later from the feet and all animate in doing the same. Even something like the taking Off of shoes, she transforms the Trivial into a stance. Yes, it occurs, as the is likely to make the most of a prominent woman’s to be expected with the High Heels she sat in a Breakfast TV show. But it is always Michelle Obama, the woman prefer to walk barefoot on the parquet. As soon as she has set on the large table, she turned completely, all the way down. She wants to tell the story of the book that she has written about her life. “We start,” she says.
Earlier, when you were First Lady, you announced that you would make first of All, in the middle of the night, a cheese toast, if you live in a normal house. Have you done this?
“Yes, I have. As I thought later about how living in the Moment feels like, when we moved out in January of 2017, from the White house, I reminded me first of such moments – the feeling that I live in my own house in Washington, whose entrance door can open. That dozens of officials are there. Ushers, housekeepers, these are all wonderful people – but we had to be very accustomed to the fact that somebody is always around us. There are probably people who always live like that, but we didn’t know that. We were a family from the neighborhood of South Side in Chicago, upper-middle class, moved into the White house.”
How hard was it to get used to after eight years in the White house back to a relatively normal life?
“My children have lived longer in the White house than anywhere else. To move back to an area in which we were able to observe how our dogs Bo and Sunny on the neighbor’s dogs reacted – everything was new and liberating. My life will never feel again, as then, before Barack was President, and I don’t expect you to. I still need Bodyguards, I will always be recognized everywhere. But now I’m free and have more control. I can run outside in our garden around barefoot. These are moments in which I durchatme deep – and where I also began, over the way of thinking that has brought me here.”
As a child, Michelle Obama writes, she was ambitious, stubborn, and picky. Everything had to have to be in order, she says, she wanted to please, good grades, hard work. And the parents, the father is employed at the water works in Chicago, the mother a housewife, also promoted Michelle and her older brother, Craig almost over their forces. Almost all of the money flowed into the education of the children. And Michelle delivered: skipped a grade, graduated at Harvard in order to work as a commercial lawyer in a prestigious law firm. It is the American dream: Hard work leads to success. And yet, Michelle, as a career lawyer, was not happy, she writes: “I did not fit in this Job. While I held him, I felt empty, even though I was pretty good at it.“
For your book, you have sat many hours with her brother Craig, and her mother Marian in the kitchen and stories from the past told of the time in front of the White house. The review was easy?
“Yes, it was relatively easy, on this part of my life back. I had prepared everything already.”
Was there an occasion?
“Yes, when I decided to work as a lawyer. At the time, I had to consider: Why is it wrong for me? I began to fathom the feelings that have made me to what I was back then. Because if you give up a Job as a lawyer, people want explanations. I had to explain it to myself, my family, my husband, Barack.”
autobiography, “Becoming – My story”: Michelle Obama – pictures from the life of the former First Lady’s reluctance Fullscreen
As Michelle Robinson, the future First Lady was born in January 1964 in the South side of Chicago
©Courtesy of the Obama-Robinson Family Archives
in fact, Michelle Obama was in her time as a lawyer, the mentor, the law student Barack, as this in the office worked. He was late to his first appointment with her. “Tardiness makes me crazy,” she writes. And that it was not love at first sight. But the three years older than Barack, impressed. They discussed the “facts man”, as she calls him, umgarnte you. And after they had bought an ice cream, there was the first kiss, in the middle of the road: “as soon As I had allowed myself to feel anything for Barack, attacked me for my feelings of outright – a storm of Desire, gratitude, fulfillment, and Wonder. Any Worries I had made to me about my life, my career, and even Barack himself, seemed to fall off with that first kiss from me.” This love was, in fact, that Michelle Obama hate the policy, learned that rubbing your man soon. She says she was not made for this Arena of peer pressure and meanness.
you Have merged over the eight years in the White house diary?
“I had at the time, no time. I’m lucky to have a friend, from the time I was in law school, Verna Williams. She came about twice a year to the White house, and then we talked about the events of the past few months. We have recorded these talks, and now have thousands of pages of transcripts. For example, there is a point in the book, I write about a dream in which lions and bears to occur that I had forgotten completely.”
you dreamed that in front of the White house is a Zoo is constructed, and wild animals about your husband and your children descend …
“The dream at that time was very formative for me, because that was my state of mind: these Fears at the beginning of the first term, when your life dissolves in front of you and you lose control. I have dreamed of at the time.”
In the eyes of Michelle Obama, Washington was “humorless” and full of dominant white men. In her book, she writes little about political events in the eight years as First Lady. And practicer not a public figure, she speaks bad to on one: Donald Trump. Vicious and absurd you called the Trump fueled conspiracy theory to the birth certificate of Barack Obama, the imputed that he was not an American – and, Michelle Obama, aimed writes, “extremists and Spinner” to stir them up. “With its malicious insinuations, he endangered the safety of my family. And I will forgive him, never.” In fact, an assassin with a gun shot at this time on the window of a room in the upper floor of the White house. And Michelle Obama describes how she stood there later, the imprints of the balls in the security glass in front of your eyes, and fear. to your loved one Questions on current politics, or Trump, you are already in advance of the interview to align, does not want to answer. You have said in the book.
Fullscreen
Michelle, as a child in Chicago with husband, Barack, prior to its inauguration
©Courtesy of the Obama-Robinson Family Archives, Charles Ommanney/
her mother moved to the White house – how important is Marian Robinson was for you?
“I would have to do without them, never all the work, and in his right mind can stay – especially their emotional presence was for the whole family is important.”
What has changed is the presence of your mother?
“My children came home to the White house, a monument, alone, it felt for me very strange: two little girls who came with their school bags and head full of adventures of the school and in the Elevator in the marble hall rise had to be in a house full of servants. And we were not there, because Barack and I were busy throughout the day. So it was important for me that my daughters had a relative, a Familiar, that was for you.”
What it could do for your mother for Sasha and Malia?
“In the first month I drove, for example, the girl with my convoy in the school. Then we stopped doing that, because it was just too much Theater when I went with my First-Lady-limousines through Washington to small children to dump. So my mother got up every Morning, until the two of them were so old that they no longer wanted to ride with her grandmother – that was about 12, 13 years. They drove in a convoy to school with them, invited them there, then you had to change to a different car, because she wasn’t allowed to go alone with the column. And then you picked up the two at the end of the school day.”
Why was that so important?
“So you could complain to … you Know, as a mother you know that children sometimes tell the most important things of the day during the journey to or directly after school. Then things are still fresh. And as little as I could capture – my mother could not. This made it for me to work. To know that my daughters would be safe and loved and felt. This was important for me and Barack.”
Ex-President
Barack and Michelle Obama – the first write books, then Donald Trump defeat
By Nicolas Bush
When Michelle Obama First Lady, calling her “Mom-in-Chief”. And it was – especially political Activists – harsh criticism. You didn’t forget this criticism, as well as all the other, partly malicious, insinuations: “ever Since I stepped hesitantly into the Public eye, you kept me as the most powerful woman in the world and at the same time as the ‘angry black woman’.“ Michelle Obama felt misunderstood. She had quickly found that she would send as the First Lady with her private life is always a message. That it a huge effect, would have to show in the White house, a loving, well-functioning black family. And because the Private was Political, also had their problems on a political Dimension. You also want as a First Lady, “not a robot”, she writes.
In your book you talk very openly about her miscarriage and the hormone treatments, which have been subjected to become pregnant – because they wanted to break a taboo?
“Yes, quite sure.”
you do not describe that even women affected to talk to each other openly about it.
“Exactly. That’s why I tell the story of my miscarriage and the problems with my pregnancy. To speak only when I’ve started it, I know that other women in a similar way. I thought: Wow, if so many join in, why does it feel so lonely? A woman, feel the power, alone, like a loser. This experience isolates you. We need to work on women – we must share all our stories with the next Generation, the good, the bad.”
Have you thought of your daughters?
“I want my daughters to understand how pregnancy really works. That the biological clock is ticking. Information is Power. Knowing about your Menstruation, your body to give birth as it is. Women don’t talk about the Menopause. How can we expect so that these taboos to be broken? This is the core of my book: Find your truth. If you’re holding back a part of your truth, you prevent that you’re growing. We learn as women to hide who we are. And I want to be a model with this message. If people see me as an icon, then I want you to see all of me. Nothing in this book is new to someone who spends time with me. But it is nothing what you are talking about constantly in Interviews or in front of the camera” (laughs).
Fullscreen
Michelle and Barack Obama: When he began his lawyers career, she was his mentor.
©Saul Loeb AFP
Michelle Obama is now like the girlfriend who would each like to have. The women nod at the table. It is no coincidence that in this Interview only women to ask questions and only women listen. There was a condition: Michelle Obama just wanted to be of the women interviewed. As a black woman, who dares, in the glare of the Public, reveal something about yourself, questioning Michelle Obama with every gig, every Interview conventions. The writer Muriel Rukeyser once asked: “What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life?” Your answer: “The world would at last rupture.”
describe how you learn in the first years of their marriage, despite their own career first had to be from her husband regardless – they kept the food warm and the kids awake until he came home. They were trapped in the Ideal of a perfect family?
“Yes. No matter how strong it is – society’s norms forms of us. You formed me. I have wrestled with these standards.”
Because your mother is gone a whole other way?
“My mother was a traditional housewife. She had not the training that I had. And she was satisfied. However, it has revealed to me once that she had played with the idea to leave my Dad. I think my mother wanted me to understand that it is part of a marriage and the woman is always to question everything. In any case, it was not for me so, I knew how I’d feel in a marriage. I didn’t even know that I knew how I could feel. As a young woman in the middle of the career you have in your head an idea of how your life should look like. But you don’t know how marriage feels like. And until you have kids, you know how these children will take your heart and your decisions will affect.”
In the book revealed to Michelle Obama that she and Barack went to Chicago to go to marriage counseling. Too often annoyed Michelle, if you waited in the evening with their little daughters in vain for the return of her husband. As a Senator on the road a lot. Michelle Obama not learned: take your happiness from the spouse. And: pay more attention to yourself. For the wrote: “We were waiting for Dad.” It was now in Baracks responsibility to be in the evening time, as if he wanted to see his daughters before bedtime. And: Michelle a planned early in the morning time for the gym, time for yourself.
auto biography “Becoming – My story”
About Michelle Obama passed for Trumps inauguration of Laughter
you tried then in Chicago, to be as a mother and a career woman perfectly, shortly after five o’clock in the morning for strength training risks, and then to the office. You believe that you are a role model?
“Well, you used the word “perfect”. Where did you read that from me?”
It is the image many people have of them.
“But if these people read the book, you will understand that there is no perfection on my way. Perfection is a myth and a word that people attribute to other people.”
It is a contradiction in terms: Before us is a up on the manicured finger nails perfect woman is sitting. But also in talk shows, awkward dancing in Jeans. And against all Protocol, the Queen embraced, which caused a worldwide Outcry. “In this moment we were just two exhausted women in tight shoes. And in the next moment, I did what I always do when I feel a man: my feelings spontaneously. I put your friendship to the Arm around the shoulder.” So spontaneously, as they bring feelings, so meticulously, Michelle Obama is in the preparation of their appearances – be it talk talk show visits or party tags.
The black civil rights leader Frederick Douglass said 150 years ago that America’s need for progress and equality of the races, and he believed generations would pass before the Power of images to be misunderstood. Michelle Obama has understood it. While Trump is on the way, the political legacy of Obama to wipe out, it is the image of the black President’s family, which will not be repaid from the story. Michelle’s daughters, Michelle’s husband, the first black President. And you, the black First Lady with dirty hands in the vegetable patch in front of the White house.
you mention only two public figures, two women, from their time in the White house: Queen Elizabeth and Angela Merkel. The Queen to call you “our friend” – why?
“Because that was the core of our relationship. And because of the way the Queen treats people. I wanted to show that even the most public, the most well-known persons have a human side. We had to act to our state to visit often, according to these rigid rules. There’s all this Protocol people have to say to you: do not do this, say this, don’t say that. And this guardian of the Protocol to communicate with each other. It’s the presidents and the Queens and Chancellors, speaking before the Meeting to each other are not.”
Podcast
Michelle Obama and the question as to the cheese toast
What have you learned from the Queen and Angela Merkel in this issue?
“The rules, the other people in your life for you to draw walls and these walls have been determined by others. The Queen and Angela Merkel are people who know how to break those walls, and against the Protocol are battling to make a direct connection to the other. This is important.”
How they have implemented the?
“I’ve tried especially with the children. There are a lot of theatres around people like us – Bodyguards and event Manager, and barriers. But then that Moment is there with a child, and you have to stop everything. And let it be known: I am aware of you in the middle of the vortex. I break through my walls. It is an art, if you’re the Queen of England and something can. The Queen and Chancellor Merkel, were the two people that stood out particularly for their high art of barrier breaking.”
you have your book “Becoming”, and that no one is ever ready to develop. What you want to be?
“Well, I’m still thinking about it. A lot depends on the circumstances, which are also still in Vogue. But if I had to answer this question right now: I’m still going to be a better mother, a better person. And I hope that I can continue to influence the world. Barack and I have just founded the Global Girls Alliance, in this work we want to lead our Foundation to continue and for the need to advertise to let all the girls in this world go to school. I am looking forward to apply more to young women only here, but throughout the world.”
And Michelle Obama as a presidential candidate?
“I am not interested in politics and would never have to make – but I know that we have in our country more people need to get involved for our democracy, if we want them to work. We need to involve especially young people. I will always do. But I also want to be someone who is balanced. And the period of time in which he can breathe.”
Fullscreen
Michelle Obama and star-foreign boss Cornelia Fuchs
©Chuck Kennedy for the Obama’s Foundation
But the policy does not need people like you?
“I firmly believe that you can change not only in political Offices in the world. Of course, we need good people in politics, but we also need good people in our schools, in charities, in business and entertainment, and in every part of the society. This is in America and in Germany and anywhere in the world. It is important that we are role models and our children to properly educate them. It comes, to treat our neighbors well – even in social media. It comes to see the humanity in others, even if someone is, in our opinion. And not to the low level of the other. All of this is not as easy as it sounds. But if we do that in our lives, and then politicians choose to represent these values, then, I think, we will find ourselves in a better world.”
How, of course, hugged Michelle Obama after the Interview-Cornelia Fuchs for a photo. Due to the size difference of 20 centimeters in the Arm from Cornelia Fuchs landed involuntarily on the Po, the former First Lady. The responded in a professional manner. With a Smile.