Won't run for office, says Michelle Obama

Former US First Lady Michelle Obama has shut down calls to run for president and said she would never run for political office, the media reported.

On Thursday, in her first speech since leaving the White House, she told an audience at the America Institute of Architecture convention in Orlando that being in the White House was tough on her family, CNN reported.

Obama said she will continue to work for young girls and women around the world who face challenges with education, medical care, economic inequality and violence.

"It's good to get out of the house," she said about being at the event. "(It's been) so far so good -- it hasn't been that long since we left ... it's good to not have the weight of the world upon your shoulders."

Obama gave the audience in the conference hall an inside look what is has been like for the former first family since leaving the White House, reports CNN.

"Friends are surprised I answer the door now," she said, adding that her daughters Sasha and Malia can actually open their windows, something they could never do at the White House.

Obama said their dogs, Bo and Sunny, never heard a doorbell before because the White House does not have a doorbell.

She told the audience the final day was bittersweet because it was the place she had lived the longest in her entire life -- and her daughters grew up in the White House.

Malia and Sasha went out the back door with tears in their eyes while President Donald Trump and Melania Trump came through the front when they moved in.

"I didn't want to have tears in my eyes for the new President," she said.

For the most part, former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have steered clear of the public spotlight since leaving the White House in January, CNN reported.

The two were last spotted earlier this month on a yacht off the island of Mo'orea in the South Pacific.

The Obamas are also busy working on their memoirs.

The couple plans to live in Washington until their younger daughter, Sasha, graduates high school in 2019.

--IANS

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