The former first lady talks to Oprah Winfrey at Oprah's 2020 Vision: Your Life In Focus tour and addresses many matters including marriage, her daughters and how it feels to live in the White House.
- Feb 11, 2020
AceShowbiz - Michelle Obama believes her family's time in the White House did not define them. The former First Lady shared her thought on the matter when she appeared as a guest speaker on Oprah Winfrey's 2020 Vision: Your Life In Focus Tour in New York City, discussing topics related to her marriage and her daughters with Barack Obama.
Speaking in front of 15,000 people at the Barclays Center on Saturday, February 8, the wife of the 44th President told the talk show host, "The House didn't define us. It's the values that defined us." She explained though she and her family had lived in the White House for eight years, she still identifies herself as "Michelle from the South Side of Chicago."
"I have nice clothes and jewelry now, but my mother made my clothes. I mean we were raised with the [idea that] that's enough," the 56-year-old elaborated as quoted by PEOPLE. "You be grateful for what you have and you don't look at the next thing. You be happy with what you have, and that’s how we worked in the White House. That didn’t change because we moved to a different house."
During the conversation, Michelle admitted that serving the nation as First Lady was "the biggest privilege" of her life. She then vowed to "continue the work to be a person of service, to try to work to make sure my life means something to somebody else." Still, she could not help but noted, "But those eight years were hard. It's a hard job. It takes a toll."
On the occasion, the "Becoming" author also talked about her marriage to Barack. "Marriage is hard. And raising a family together is a hard thing and takes a toll," she confided. "But if you know why you were with them, and you understand that there was a friendship and a foundation there...that may feel like it goes away in some of those hard times, but it's something that we always come back to."
The mother of two additionally shared the advice she gave her daughters, 21-year-old Malia and 18-year-old Sasha. "What I tell them is what I continue to tell themselves is that they have to walk their own walk," she spilled. "They cannot define themselves by looking at each other or looking at me or their dad."
"They have to take the time to get to know themselves - give themselves a moment to figure out who they want to be in the world, not who they think I want them to be, not what the rest of the world says about them, but to really think about how they want to shape their lives and how they want to move in this world," Michelle said. "So, I don't want them measuring themselves by external influences, and for young girls that is hard to do."
