Michelle and Barack Obama know exactly who to turn to for relationship advice.
During Wednesday’s episode of the former first lady’s IMO podcast, she had Bruce Springsteen on as a guest, where she admitted to admiring the relationship between the “Born in the U.S.A” singer and his wife, Patti Scialfa.
“I marvel at you and Patti and the work that you all have done,” she said. “You and Patti have been couple mentors for me and Barack for quite some time.”
“[We are] watching you guys do the work, getting advice on how to keep those lines of communication open,” she added, praising the two of them for being “powerhouses in [their] own right … merging those lives together.”
Springsteen and Scialfa have been married for over 30 years and share three children together. Meanwhile, Michelle and Barack have also been married for more than 30 years and share two daughters.
![‘[We are] watching you guys do the work, getting advice on how to keep those lines of communication open,’ Michelle said about Bruce Springsteen and his wife](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/06/11/20/46/MixCollage-11-Jun-2025-04-24-PM-6208.jpg)
After spending so many years together, Barack started giving dating advice to the CEO of Airbnb, Brian Chesky, which he revealed during a previous episode of Michelle’s IMO podcast.
“One time I was like — I met somebody and I was about to go on a date with — I went on a date with them and I remember telling him like, ‘Oh my God, she checks all the boxes and like this, this, this, this, this,’” Chesky told Michelle and her brother, Craig Robinson, last month. “And I remember him saying something. He said, it’s not a checklist.”
Chesky explained that he never considered that he had adopted this mindset until after Barack pointed out what he should really be looking for in a long-term partner.
“He’s like, the right person is someone where they’ve got this weird laugh or snort and you find it really funny,” Chesky continued. “And it’s like, in other words, it’s not necessarily what you think you’re looking for. And you’re not dating a checklist, you’re dating a real person. And the real person makes you feel a certain way.”
“I think it was like a really, really important piece of advice,” he added.
Despite the couple’s marriage spanning decades, Michelle was still forced to address divorce rumors following her absence at several notable events.
The rumors first started when Barack attended former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral without his wife in January. Then, days later, Michelle confirmed she wouldn’t attend Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration.
Speaking on Sophia Bush’s Work in Progress podcast in April, Michelle touched on the rumors. “The interesting thing is that, when I say ‘no,’ for the most part people are like, ‘I get it,’” she said.
“That’s the thing that we as women, I think we struggle with disappointing people. I mean, so much so that this year people couldn’t even fathom that I was making a choice for myself that they had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing.”
