Michelle Obama Says She Was Once ‘Roped’ into a Wedding Ring Prank

Practical jokes were a regular part of Michelle Obama’s White House days.

The former first lady, 61, revealed on the Literally! podcast with Rob Lowe that pranks were a frequent occurrence during her time in the White House — “a little bit too often,” she admitted — and shared that she was even “roped” into one involving her wedding ring.

Michelle shared on the podcast that she had two “body people,” who were personal aides that would sweep her and her husband Barack Obama’s hotel room to make sure that there were no “personal effects” left behind.

However, one of these aides decided to play a prank on a “young intern” by telling them that she had “left” her “wedding ring in the bathroom” of the hotel they had been staying at before a flight.

“We had left the building, we were in the motorcade,” Michelle recalled. “So the text was, ‘I know somebody swept it. So I’m assuming that you have it if someone swept the room, right?’ ”  

“So everybody’s in different cars in the motorcade and [the intern] was put in a motorcade with no one that she could ask questions of. So she was left for the entire ride thinking that she had basically lost my engagement ring, and she’s trying to text everybody in between…,” she explained.

The former first lady recalled that the room went “dead silent” as staffers let the prank play out, leaving the intern “sweating” as she panicked over the supposedly missing wedding ring. Meanwhile, staffers looked on, giving her the unspoken message: “You’re gonna have to talk to the first lady about that.”

“So we get on the plane, I go to my cabin and the only thing she knows is that you have to see the first lady, period. So she walks in, you know, immediately says, ‘I don’t know what happened, I swear,’ ” Michelle recounted.

“And that’s when we said, ‘It’s a prank. We have it.’ So we let her sweat for an entire drive to the airport. So that’s an example of the kind of pranks [going on in the White House]. I don’t know whether that lightens the mood or I don’t know.” 

The Light We Carry author noted that “after a while,” she had to put her foot down and “stop the pranks” — especially ones that involved her — because they “got more elaborate and people were crying.” 

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“I had to tell the younger staff, ‘I think we just need to [stop] or at least keep me out of it, you know?,’ ” she shared. “I mean, it’s one thing to play a prank in the office, and it’s another thing to involve the First Lady of the United States.” 

Michelle’s brother Craig Robinson, 63, with whom she co-hosts the IMO podcast, also chimed in, noting that he has abstained from pranks ever since he was “pranked so badly as a 10-year-old” by their mother, and joked that he was “still traumatized.”