Michelle and Barack Obama have spoken frankly about 'date nights', living in the White House and difficulties in balancing family and careerIt is the most powerful marriage in politics, involving the most famous couple in the world.
But the union of Barack and Michelle Obama has remained firmly behind closed doors, with a veil of closely guarded secrecy drawn across their private lives.Until now.
A remarkable glimpse into the Obamas' marriage has been granted to New York Times journalist Jodi Kantor, who was given rare access to the first couple to ask them, not about the policy debates raging in Washington, but about their personal life.The marital portrait that has emerged, detailed in a 7,000-word magazine article published in America this weekend, reveals a marriage that has had its rough patches but has, amazingly, found its groove in the high-octane world of the White House.It has certainly blossomed into one of the most glamorous couplings in presidential history, perhaps topped for style and panache only by the Kennedys.
Like their 1960s predecessors, the Obamas are young and stylish.
They photograph well as a handsome pair, are often caught kissing and hugging in seemingly private moments, and have gone on "date nights" that have created headlines across America, just like Hollywood stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie do.Kantor describes a marriage that is flourishing during Obama's first year as America's first black president, and rebuilding a family life that was strained by years of tough campaigning.
But now, with the family living and working in the same building, the Obamas and their two daughters have been able to spend a lot of time together.
Curiously, winning the Oval Office has given them a normal family life.
"This is the first time in a long time in our marriage that we've lived seven days a week in the same household with the same schedule, with the same set of rituals," Michelle Obama told Kantor.Now the Obama daughters can go to local cinemas and take walks around their neighbourhood.
The White House hosts movie nights and the family play Scrabble together.
The Obamas themselves spend time together morning and night, often not beginning their schedules until 9am or 10am, and nearly always eating together.
Michelle Obama emerges as someone who keeps her husband grounded, often using humour to remind him that he is mostly just her husband, not the president of the United States.She frequently laughs at him as she sits behind his desk.
"She can puncture the balloon," Barack Obama said.
In return, he often refers to her as Flotus, an official acronym that stands for First Lady of the United States.But the Obamas did not always find their private and political lives mixed so easily.
The Obamas have had difficult times in their marriage, as have many couples struggling to balance the intense demands of career, family and relationship.
Their well-documented low point came back in Illinois, where for several years Michelle Obama felt neglected by her ambitious husband as he spent long days away from home playing state politics, and she was left to look after their children.
Speaking to the newspaper, Michelle spoke frankly about the stresses.
"This was sort of the eye-opener to me, that marriage is hard," she said.Kantor asked Barack Obama if they had come close to divorce and received the blunt reply: "That's over-reading it.
But I wouldn't gloss over the fact that that was a tough time for us."But the tensions between the couple gradually eased and their marriage seems to have merged more happily with their political life during Obama's historic campaign, first in defeating Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, and then in beating Republican opponent John McCain to capture the White House.Michelle Obama gradually became more involved in her husband's appearances and frequently offered him advice.
She emerged as a kind of anti-Hillary figure, allowing him to capture women voters, and then became part of the strong family image that the Obamas projected against McCain.Michelle Obama has also gradually increased her contribution to the administration.
Aides described to Kantor how she will provide a sounding board for the president on issues like nominations to the supreme court and moves to extend healthcare coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans.The first couple will sit together on a balcony or around their dinner table mulling over such matters, and it is certain that Barack Obama takes his wife's advice seriously, although the two are far from the "co-presidency" that Bill and Hillary Clinton sometimes seemed.
Indeed, while the Clintons had their own agendas and ambitions, and seemed to take it in turns to have political careers, the Obamas have emerged as more of a unified team.
Barack Obama even quotes his wife in policy meetings with his cabinet if he thinks her advice has been especially pertinent.
Michelle Obama is also gradually developing an agenda of her own, centred on health issues, on which she will speak and start to campaign.But, despite the apparent improvement in the family life of the Obamas and their marriage, being the first couple of the United States is never easy.
Or normal.
It is still a surreal existence inside an intense security bubble and the sort of modern media scrutiny that no president has ever had to endure.For Barack Obama that has provided the only feelings of genuine anger during his presidency.
Although he has endured right-wing accusations of being a closet communist, endless death threats and accusations from liberals that he has let them down, what really annoyed Obama was criticism of his "date nights" with Michelle.
Because of the security around their visits to a show or a restaurant, the Obamas have been attacked by some as costing taxpayers too much money with their socialising, and disrupting the lives of ordinary people as roads are closed off for their motorcade."The notion that I just couldn't take my wife out on a date without it being a political issue was not something I was happy with," Barack Obama said.
"What I value most about my marriage is that it is separate and apart from a lot of the silliness of Washington, and Michelle is not part of that silliness."He added: "If I weren't president, I would be happy to catch the shuttle with my wife to take her to a Broadway show, as I had promised her during the campaign, and there would be no fuss and no photographers.
That would please me greatly."Read the full version of Jodi Kantor's remarkable portrait of a marriage in the Observer Magazine on 15 November
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