Michelle Obama Had a Strange Experience After Leaving White House: "I Was Crying Because..."

Barack Obama lost his presidency to his successor Donald Trump in 2017. Naturally, his wife Michelle Obama was upset while leaving the White House. She even shed tears and tried very hard to put on a brave face. However, she explained that she didn't want people to assume she was crying because Trump was elected. Her reason was more emotional than expected. 

"I didn't want to have tears in my eyes because people would swear I was crying because of the new president," clarified Obama as per USA Today. Instead, she was emotional because she found it hard to bid goodbye to the loyal White House staff members. During Obama's eight years in office, they became like a family to the former First Family and actively contributed to raising their two daughters Sasha and Malia.

Meanwhile, giving away power to someone like Trump, who was the opposite of what they portrayed, wasn't easy to accept either. During her The Light Podcast, the former First Lady said she was upset at the values Trump endorsed, "To sit on that stage and watch the opposite of what we represented on display. There was no color on that stage, there was no reflection of the broader sense of America," as per The Guardian.

She fought back her tears until Obama flew off the capitol building. "You take your last flight off, [and] when those doors shut, I cried for 30 minutes straight, uncontrollably sobbing, because that's how much we [have] been holding it together for eight years." Despite the differences, they engaged in the peaceful transfer of power to the Trumps but the emotions were raw. 

"Many people took pictures of me and they're like, 'You weren't in a good mood?' No, I was not! But you had to hold it together like you do for eight years," Michelle acknowledged the disappointment at America's choice but accepted the results nonetheless. 

Obama, on the other hand, also opened up about what he felt while leaving the White House. During an interview with BBC radio station, he shared how grateful he was for having Michelle by his side. "She had been my partner through that whole process," gushed the 44th president of the US. However, at the same time, he was "concerned about how the country moves forward," per PEOPLE.

Predictably, life after the White House changed significantly for Michelle. She felt she had more free time, and less space while adjusting to their new normal which included a doorbell which, of course, they didn't have at the Presidential Palace. "I have a door and a doorbell and people trip out when I come to my door and I open it."

In addition, their dogs, Bo and Sunny, were equally perplexed by the sound of a doorbell as the pets have no clue what that is. "So [when] the doorbell rings and they're like 'I've never heard that before,'" the now-60-year-old joked.