Michelle Obama reveals what life inside the White House is like on Jimmy Kimmel
Michelle Obama is lifting the veil on the realities of her former life at the White House, down to the most unexpected details.
The former first lady appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Thursday night to discuss her autobiography Becoming, which came out on Tuesday.
Kimmel began by urging Obama to team up with her husband to "save" America.
"There's this thing called the Constitution," Obama countered, only for Kimmel to shoot back: "We've dispensed with that already, haven't we?"
This was one of the most politically charged moments of the overall light-hearted interview, which focused more on the minutiae of the family's life at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Obama explained she finally finds herself having the time to reflect on her White House years after a hectic decade.
She gave more insight on the lives of the two formerly presidential pets Bo and Sunny, the Portuguese water dogs adopted by the Obamas in 2009 and 2013 respectively.
"Did Bo the White House dog know that he was the White House dog?" Kimmel asked.
"You know, he acted like he did. He's an odd dog," Obama said, drawing laughter from the audience.
"Barack criticises Bo a little bit because he is odd. He has an aloofness to him. It's almost sort of like, 'Don't touch me. I am Bo. Don't you know who I am?'"
Bo and Sunny even had official schedules, the former first lady revealed.
"I would do briefing requests for them," she said.
"They had to get my permission but I would find – in my briefing book, it would be: 'Can Bo and Sunny stop by this press event at 2.30pm?' There would be a time and I had to approve of it."
Kimmel also told Obama how surprised he was to learn that the first family have to pay for their own food while living at the White House.
Obama said she agrees with the practice, because she doesn't want to be "mooching off the tax payers".
"But it's a little shocking because nobody really tells you this stuff and then they let you get whatever you want, like if you say you want some exotic fruit, 'Yes Ma'am, we'll get that right away,'" she added.
"And then you get the bill for a peach and it's like, 'That was a $500 peach!'"
On a more serious note, the Harvard Law School graduate told Kimmel that although many people have urged her to run for office or get heavily involved in another candidate's political campaign, it's not something she would "ever do".
Kimmel finally asked Obama to read aloud humorous statement prepared ahead of time, with the idea that the sentences would have been too outrageous for her to say back when she was first lady.
The quips included: "The whole eight years we were in the White House, we used Laura Bush's Netflix password" and "I'm not sure which one's Sasha and which one's Malia."
"You know, they agree," Obama said of the latter sentence, in reference to her two daughters.
"They get so mad every time I mess their names up, I'm like: 'Who are you?'"
Obama is currently on tour to promote Becoming. She began on 13 November in Chicago and is scheduled to speak in several other locations, including New York City, London, and Washington, DC.
