Michelle Obama has hit out at people who assumed she is getting divorced

She told the 'Work in Progress with Sophia Bush' podcast: "The interesting thing is that, when I say 'no,' for the most part people are like, 'I get it, and I'm okay'.

"That's the thing that we as women, I think...we struggle with disappointing people.

"I mean, so much so that this year people were... 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 argued that if people don't fit the "stereotype" others expect of them, then their actions or portrayed in a certain way.

She said: "This couldn't be a grown woman just making a set of decisions for herself, right?.

"But that's what society does to us.

"We start actually, finally going, 'What am I doing? Who am I doing this for?'

"And if it doesn't fit into the sort of stereotype of what people think we should do, then it gets labeled as something negative and horrible."

Michelle - who has daughters Malia, 26, and Sasha, 23, with her husband - is in a place where she wants to be "making some big girl decisions" after entering her 60s.

She explained: "If not now, when? What am I waiting for? How am I going to spend 20 years?

"Now is the time for me to start asking myself these hard questions of, 'Who do I truly want to be every day?'

"I'm trying to do that more and more, so what does it look like? It looks like whatever I want it to look like, and I still find time to give speeches and to be out there in the world and to work on projects."