Michelle Opens Up To Oprah

Revealing Her Relationship Highs & Woes, What Scared Her Most & Life Beyond the White House

We bet your dream book club includes good snacks, inspiring questions, maybe some wine. But what if the author showed up…with Oprah in tow?! Well, here they are: Michelle Obama with the inside scoop on her new memoir, Becoming — filled with humor, struggles, love and sheer humanity — in conversation with the queen of book clubs herself, Oprah Winfrey. Settle in...

Oprah: Why Becoming?

Michelle: We actually had a blooper list of titles that we won’t go into. But Becoming just summed it all up. A question that adults ask kids — I think it’s the worst question in the world — is “What do you want to be when you grow up?” As if growing is finite. As if you become something and that is all there is.

Oprah: You grow up and are many different things — as you have been many different things.

Michelle: And I don’t know what the next step will be. I tell young people that all the time. You know, all young women probably have some magic number of what age you’ll be when you feel like a grown-up. Generally, when you think your mother will stop telling you what to do. [Laughs]. But the truth is, for me, each decade has offered something amazing that I would have never imagined. And if I had stopped looking, I would have missed out on so much. So I’m still becoming, and this is the story of my journey. Hopefully, it will spark conversations, especially among young people, about their journeys.

Oprah: There are so many revelations in this book. Was writing about your private life scary?