Kumail Nanjiani is responding to an odd rumor that briefly brought him into the ongoing talk about Michelle and Barack Obama’s marriage.
The actor, known for The Big Sick and Marvel’s Eternals, addressed a report and online discussion claiming he had an affair with former first lady Michelle Obama. He made it clear that this claim is not true.
“There was a rumor going around about me last year that I was having an affair with Michelle Obama,” Nanjiani told comedian Caleb Hearon on the So True podcast. He explained that the story even reached his wife, writer Emily Gordon. “Our mutual friend pulled Emily aside and was like ‘Hey, I heard that Kumail and Michelle Obama are like doing it.’ She wasn’t even upset.”
Nanjiani noted that the rumor didn’t just stay online. It kept coming up in real-life conversations. “Multiple people brought it up to me,” he said. He went on to share a blunt detail that undercuts the claim entirely, “I’ve never met Michelle Obama.”
This denial comes as social media continues to churn out claims about the Obamas’ relationship. Unverified theories regularly go viral and sometimes bring unrelated celebrities into the fold. In this case, Nanjiani became the “someone else” in a marriage story that he says has nothing to do with him.
Though the former first couple has not directly responded to the latest swirl of divorce rumors, both Barack and Michelle Obama have talked publicly over the years about the pressures their marriage faced. This was especially true when their daughters were young and as the demands of politics and public life increased.
In a 2022 roundtable conversation, Michelle Obama admitted that the early parenting years were tough on their relationship. “People think I’m being catty by saying this, but there were 10 years where I couldn’t stand my husband,” she said, noting that the strain came when their children were little.
She has also discussed seeking help from others. In a 2018 interview, Michelle Obama said she and Barack Obama went to marriage counseling. She framed it as a helpful step rather than a sign of failure, cautioning against the belief that tough times mean something is fundamentally broken.
More recently, Barack Obama has openly discussed the impact the presidency had on their relationship. At an April 2025 event, he said he was “in a deep deficit” with his wife after his two terms in the White House and that he has been “trying to dig myself out of that hole” by doing “occasionally fun things.”
The Obamas have been subject to several baseless rumors during their careers in politics. Barack was once falsely linked to Jennifer Aniston, and Michelle has been targeted with altered photos to make her look more masculine with false accusations of transgerism.
Before the White House, Barack Obama and Michelle Obama were two young Chicago lawyers whose relationship began after they met in 1989 at the Chicago law firm Sidley Austin. Michelle was assigned to mentor Barack, and she has openly admitted she was initially skeptical of dating him, especially because he was her trainee.
Barack said he persisted and eventually convinced her to join him for lunch, then a date, then a long walk that sealed it. They dated while juggling demanding careers and eventually married in 1992.
