Michelle Obama Said The Sweetest Thing About Barack & Being Empty Nesters

Michelle Obama is reflecting on how dropping her daughters off at college has positively impacted her marriage with Barack. While the former FLOTUS and POTUS might be on their own now that Malia is attending Harvard and Sasha is at the University of Michigan, it's apparently not all that lonely at home. The Becoming author shared how not living with their kids anymore has contributed to having "more emotional energy" with her husband. While many parents might struggle with not having their kids at home anymore, Michelle Obama's comment about being an empty nester was all about re-establishing her relationship with Barack — and unsurprisingly, it's relationship goals.

On Saturday, Feb. 8, the author gave fans a look into her marriage with the former president while speaking with Oprah Winfrey for her WW 2020 Vision: Your Life tour. In the appearance, Obama said that while she misses her daughters, she's also enjoyed how much of her life has been freed up since dropping them off at college.

“Parenting takes up a lot of emotional space," she told Winfrey. "I put a lot of time and energy into parenting these girls but right now we are trying to make their lives normal — so that means weekends were a pain. We had to worry about what parties they were going to, whether there was alcohol, I had to know who the parents were, so every weekend for me was hard."

Now that she and Barack Obama are empty nesters, she said that it's given her a new license to focus on what she wants to do next, as well as her marriage. "All that energy I can now place back on me and spending time figuring out my next chapter, how I want to spend the rest of my life," she said.

While the power couple has battled their share of stressors together over the years with raising two daughters in the limelight, Michelle Obama admitted that being on their own has been a game-changer for their relationship and re-discovering their emotional connection.

Revealing that she had "more emotional energy" to give to the former president now, she said, "Now I can look at him and recognize my husband. He’s still the man I fell in love with." With the couple's 28th anniversary coming up, she added that they are "coming back to this point where we see each other again."

Michelle Obama's comments come just weeks after the former president showed fans once again why they are relationship goals. In honor of the former FLOTUS's 56th birthday, Barack took to Instagram to share a black-and-white collage of the pair cheesing, kissing, and just generally being adorable together.

"In every scene, you are my star, @MichelleObama!" he captioned the photo. "Happy birthday, baby!"

Judging from Michelle's latest comments, the couple is only going stronger than ever as they continue to enjoy their life together after the White House. With the couple's 28th wedding anniversary just around the corner on Oct. 3, I'd keep an eye out for even more aww-worthy relationship inspo.