Former president Barack Obama was pictured enjoying some family time with his daughters in Los Angeles on Friday. Wife Michelle, however, was nowhere to be seen.
Barack wore a black jacket, black shirt and dark grey trousers as he stepped out with Malia, 26, and Sasha, 23, for dinner at Hamasaku, a sushi restaurant in West Los Angeles.
Barack also wore his wedding ring amid ongoing speculation about his and Michelle’s marriage.
It’s not clear why Michelle, 61, didn’t accompany Barack, 63, and their daughters, but she previously brushed off divorce rumors after skipping several public-facing events like former president Jimmy Carter’s funeral and President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
During a recent episode Sophia Bush’s “Work In Progress” podcast, Michelle explained that she simply wanted to take a step back from the spotlight after so many years of public service.
She laughed off the notion that she and Barack were headed for a divorce, noting that people have a hard time accepting “a grown woman just making a set of decisions for herself.”
“The interesting thing is that when I say ‘no,’ for the most part, people are like, ‘I get it,’ and I’m OK,” she shared.
“And that’s the thing that we as women struggle with — disappointing people. So much so that people, they couldn’t even fathom that I was making a choice for myself, that they had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing,” Michelle continued.
Michelle further shut down the split speculation when she flaunted her engagement and wedding rings while out in Los Angeles on April 17.
And earlier this month, she and Barack were spotted on a date night in Washington, DC.
A fellow patron at Italian restaurant Osteria Mozza captured a video of the couple walking down a stairway after dining in a private room.
Michelle and Barack met in 1989 and tied the knot three years later.
