Kumail Nanjiani has weighed in on one of the internet’s stranger inventions: a rumour that he was having an affair with Michelle Obama.
In a recent podcast appearance, the Eternals star said a rumour started circulating last year that he was somehow “having an affair with Michelle Obama” even though he had “never met” the former US First Lady.
“I was so excited! My friend, our mutual friend pulled Emily aside and was like, ‘Hey, so I heard that Kumail and Michelle Obama are like doing it.’ And she was like, she wasn’t even upset, but multiple people brought it up to me,” Nanjiani told host Caleb Hearon on the So True podcast.
Emily V Gordon, a writer and producer, is Nanjiani’s wife.
“I have never met Michelle Obama,” the actor confirmed.
Hearon then brought up another long-running Obama internet lore, this time involving the former president himself.
“There’s been this persistent rumour that Barack is stepping out with Jen Aniston,” the host said, admitting that he did not quite know what to make of it when Nanjiani asked if he believed it.
“But what I’m saying is, my friend Kumail, you’re up there with Jen Aniston in terms of affair rumours.”
Assessing the supposed “affair partners”, Nanjiani joked that the Obamas were, in both cases, “slumming it”.
The Big Sick star was quick to add that he meant “no shade to Jen”.
Aniston already cleared up the rumour involving her last year, saying on Jimmy Kimmel’s show that she was “not mad at it”, but it was all “absolutely untrue”.
Earlier this year, Nanjiani shared that he had expected his career in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to take off after Eternals, because he had “signed on for six movies”.
He played the superhero Kingo in the 2021 movie, which adapted the comic about ancient aliens protecting the earth from attack. In preparation for the role, Nanjiani, 47, underwent a physical transformation to gain a muscular, “superhero” physique.
The film, directed by Chloe Zhao, didn’t receive the rave reviews fans and studio executives had hoped for. Eternals is one of the lowest-rated Marvel films on Rotten Tomatoes, with 47 per cent.
“I talked about how I was in this big movie. It came out right after Covid, so I had a year and a half at home to just be like, ‘Oh, when this thing comes out!’” Nanjiani said on the Working It Out podcast, before confirming the “big movie” was Eternals. “But then it came out and it got really bad reviews, and it didn’t do that well. It shattered me too much. That’s when I was like, ‘Oh I need to go to therapy to figure this out.’”
