A new ‘unofficial’ biography of US President Barack Obama claims that his wife Michelle once sought the advice of a divorce lawyer and even had divorce papers drawn up following her husband’s first attempt to win a seat in the Senate.
The couple had been married for eight years at that point, and, so the book says, Mr Obama was depressed to the point that friends thought he may even be contemplating suicide.
The book – The Amateur – has been written by Edward Klein, former editor in chief of The New York Times Magazine and former foreign editor of Newsweek. Klein has also written controversial books on Hilary Clinton and the Kennedys.
Klein’s claims are not the first that the Obamas marriage has hit breaking point – in 2010 reports suggested their marriage was in difficulty, but the couple went on record as saying they had worked things out and become closer in the process.
According to Klein, after Barack Obama’s “humiliating defeat” in the 2000 race for seat in Chicago, he was financially ruined and many thought his political career was over. And his wife was, apparently, not sympathetic.
Michelle Obama had allegedly warned her husband that taking on “the formidable Bobby Rush” for the South Side seat was risky and she felt that her family had been put in an extremely difficult position financially as a result of the loss.
So, as many divorce lawyers will tell you, money worries are a force for divorce and it appears that prospective First Couples are no exception – still, it would seem that the First Lady is all smiles now, so we should think those early divorce papers have well and truly bitten the dust.
