Michelle and Barack Obama are now said to be "just friends" amid their "crumbling" marriage, after the couple were hit by wild Jennifer Aniston affair rumors.
RadarOnline.com can reveal the power couples have been living increasingly separate lives in recent years which was compounded last week when Obama, 63, attended Jimmy Carter's funeral minus his wife, 61.
Michelle Obama has previously told how she did not like her husband for 10 years – and was reportedly 'hurt' by Aniston affair rumors. MEGA
Cracks in their 32-marriage became evident in October last year when the former president was romantically linked with Friends star Jennifer Aniston , 55.
An insider told RadarOnline.com : "The Obamas are having a tough time, there's no doubt about that.
"Their once solid marriage has come under strain and for the first time, they're struggling to keep a lid on their problems.
"The Aniston 'affair' attention was unwanted and Michelle felt let down by it all.
"But the reality is they are more like friends at the moment, the spark has gone and they're simply going throught the motions."
Obama is allegedly known for his wandering eye. MEGA
Michelle's absence from Carter's funeral earlier this month was blamed on her disdain for President-elect Donald Trump , 78, who sat next to her husband at the service in Washington and the pair were spotted laughing together.
She will also be missing from the business mogul's inauguration on Monday.
It's a tradition – admittedly broken by the Trumps themselves when they missed Joe Biden's 2021 ceremony – that previous Presidents and their First Ladies put aside their political differences to attend inaugurations.
In 2022, Michelle admitted in panel discussion that for a decade – when their daughters Malia and Sasha were young – she hated her husband.
She said: "People think I'm being catty – it's like, there were ten years where I couldn't stand my husband."
Obama sat next to Donald Trump at Jimmy Carter's funeral and the president-elect's presence was the reason Michelle did not attend. MEGA
The following year, when Obama was asked about Michelle's remarks during a television appearance, he said: "Let me just say this: it sure helps to be out of the White House and to have a little more time with her."
Michelle has admitted part of the problem is their different personalities.
She said: "Barack wants to talk rationally and I'm like 'rational'?"
Michelle conceded she was more ‘'hot-headed' than the famously phlegmatic Obama, adding: "Don't come to me with sense – I'm angry. Don't come to me with your three bullet points — you better get out of here and let me cool down."
Friends star Aniston furiously denied rumors of an affair with former president Obama, claiming she has only met him once. MEGA
The Aniston rumors raised further questions over Obama's notorious wandering eye.
The Morning Show star publicly dismissed the "absolutely untrue" claims by a magazine that she and Obama were in a relationship – making Michelle feel "betrayed".
Aniston told a US TV chat show host: "I've met him once. I know Michelle more than him."
The affair talk came after claims made by Sheila Miyoshi Jager – an ex-girlfriend who Obama whom he came close to marrying before he met Michelle — in a 2017 biography of Obama by the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David Garrow.
She revealed they'd kept up an intimate, if occasional, relationship between 1991 and 1992, when he had been with Michelle for a couple of years.
Jager told Garrow: "I always felt bad about it."
