The former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama is opening up about her life in a new memoir, Becoming, which was officially released today, she reveals she struggled with fertility issues before conceiving her two daughters, Sasha and Malia. She also delves into parts of her life as First Lady.
In an interview with Robin Roberts for a special on the book, which aired on ABC over the weekend, the former first lady said she had a miscarriage 20 years ago. 
She also made the revelation to Oprah Winfred who also interviews her ahead of her memoir release. The former lawyer discusses growing up in South Side, Chicago, feeling alone as a new bride when her husband went away for work sometimes for weeks at a time, and the massive spotlight she was placed under as the country’s First Lady.
“I felt lost and alone, and I felt like I failed because I didn’t know how common miscarriages were, because we don’t talk about them,” Obama said. “We sit in our own pain, thinking that somehow we’re broken. That’s one of the reasons why I think it’s important to talk to young mothers about the fact that miscarriages happen.” Obama told Roberts.
She also said she underwent in vitro fertilisation in her mid-30s in order to conceive her two daughters, after realising “the biological clock is real, because egg production is limited.”
“I decided to tell her story so women know they are not alone if they’re struggling to start a family. “I think it’s the worst thing that we do to each other as women, not share the truth about our bodies and how they work, and how they don’t work,” she said.
BECOMING EXTRACT: Michelle Obama reveals fertility challenges and how IVF helped her conceive daughters
“So far in my life, I’ve been a lawyer. I’ve been a Vice President at a hospital and the director of a nonprofit that helps young people build meaningful careers. I’ve been a working-class black student at a fancy, mostly white college. I’ve been the only woman, the only African American, in all sorts of rooms. I’ve been a bride, a stressed-out new mothers, a daughter torn up by grief. And, until recently, I was the First Lady of the United States of America – a job that’s not officially a job, but that nonetheless has given me a platform like nothing I could have imagined. It challenged me and humbled me, lifted me up and shrank me down, sometimes all at once. I’m just beginning to process what took place over these last years – from the moment in 2006 when my husband first started talking about running for president to the cold morning this winter when I climbed into a limo with Melania Trump, accompanying her to her husband’s inauguration. It’s been quite a ride.
When you’re First Lady, America shows itself to you in its extremes. I’ve been to fund-raisers in private homes that look more like art museums, houses where people own bathtubs made from gemstones. I’ve visited families who lost everything in Hurricane Katrina and are grateful just to have a working refrigerator and stove. I’ve encountered people I find to be shallow and hypocritical and others – teachers and military spouses and so many more – whose spirits are so deep and strong it’s astonishing. And I’ve met kids – lots of them, all over the world – who crack me up and fill me with hope and who blessedly manage to forget about title once we start rooting around the dirt of a garden.
Since stepping reluctantly into public life, I’ve been held up as the most powerful woman in the world and taken down as an “angry black woman”. I’ve wanted to ask my detractors which part of that phrase matters to them the most – is it “angry” or “black” or “woman”? I’ve smiled for photos with people who call my husband horrible names on national television, but still want a framed keepsake for their mantel. I’ve heard about the swampy parts of the internet that question everything about me, right down to whether I’m a woman or a man. A sitting US congressman has made fun of my butt. I’ve been hurt. I’ve been furious. But mostly, I’ve tried to laugh this stuff off.”
