Michelle Obama says she is thinking about retiring from public life

Former first lady is set to star in an upcoming Netlix children’s series

Michelle Obama says she is thinking about retiring (Getty Images)

Michelle Obama has revealed she is moving towards retirement, the former first lady explaining that she and husband Barack Obama are “building the foundation for somebody else to continue the work”.

Ms Obama opened up about what the future holds in an interview with People on Wednesday, when she said she has become more selective in the projects she signs on to.

As the outlet notes, the former first lady is starring in an upcoming new Netflix children’s seriesWaffles + Mochi, set to air on Tuesday, has remained active in politics, recently published a special young-reader edition of her memoir, Becoming, and has signed on to work with the Partnership for a Healthier America to help provide food for all families in America.

Since the conclusion of their time in the White House, the Obamas have also worked on a variety of other endeavours, including podcasts and projects created through the partnership with their production company Higher Ground Productions and Netflix.

However, according to Ms Obama, she has begun telling the couple’s daughters, Malia, 22,  Sasha, 19, that she is “moving toward retirement right now”.

“I’ve been telling my daughters I’m moving toward retirement right now, [selectively] picking projects and chasing summer,” she said. “Barack and I never want to experience winter again.

Read more: Michelle Obama to be added to US National Women’s Hall of Fame

“We’re building the foundation for somebody else to continue the work so we can retire and be with each other – and Barack can golf too much, and I can tease him about golfing too much because he’s got nothing else to do.”

For the time being, however, the Becoming author acknowledged that there is still “work to be done” before she and the former president can pass on the reins to the next generation of activists.

Referencing racial injustice in the country, but also Donald Trump’s failed reelection, a loss she actively campaigned for, Ms Obama said: “We breathe for a moment, but there’s still work to be done. That’s why Barack and I are focused on developing the next generation of leaders through the Obama Foundation … so that each year we step further out of the spotlight and make room for them.”

The Obama Foundation is a Chicago-based nonprofit organisation founded in 2014 that aims to “inspire, empower and connect people to change their world,” with the organisation currently building the Obama Presidential Center on Chicago’s South Side.

Elsewhere in the interview, Ms Obama, who previously revealed that she was suffering from “low-grade depression” amid the pandemic and the racial reckoning that began after the killing of George Floyd, also touched on the upsides of quarantine, such as the increased time spent with Malia and Sasha.

The couple’s daughters moved home from college to quarantine together as a family, with the former first lady stating that the time allowed her and Mr Obama to “get some stolen moments back with our girls”.

“Those recaptured moments have meant the world to us and I think they’ve made our relationships with our children even stronger,” she said, adding that her daughters didn’t come back home to the same set of rules that existed before they moved out because she didn’t wanted them to lose their newfound “independence”.

“They didn’t come back into the house into the same set of rules, because I didn’t want them to miss out on independence. They came back as young women and our conversations are more peer-oriented than they are mother-to-daughter,” she said.

As for the hobbies she’s picked up in quarantine, Ms Obama told the outlet that she has become infatuated with knitting, which she referred to as “a forever proposition” because there is always more to learn.

“Knitting is a forever proposition. You don’t master knitting, because once you make a scarf, there’s the blanket. And once you do the blanket, you’ve got to do the hat, the socks.  … I could go on about knitting!” she said.