So, Michelle and Barack Obama: What is the state of your union?

It is the question that has been dominating Washington dinner parties for weeks: could the once-golden First Couple of the United States really be heading for the rocks?

If rumours are to be believed, the 21-year marriage of Barack and Michelle Obama has been racked by screaming rows, allegations of infidelity and a string of jealous fights.

While the White House has refused to comment on the reports, there has been a distinct frostiness in the air between the couple in recent months.

According to a report in the National Enquirer which plastered ‘Obama Divorce Bombshell!’ across its front page, the pair have been at loggerheads since last summer and are now sleeping in separate bedrooms.

The ‘final straw’, apparently, was Michelle’s outrage when her husband publicly humiliated her by openly flirting and posing for his now infamous ‘selfie’ photograph with Denmark’s glamorous blonde Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service.

According to published reports, Mrs Obama is only standing by her 52-year-old husband until his presidency ends.

He will then return to his home state of Hawaii while she will remain with their daughters in Washington.

The Enquirer is famously well-connected in Washington, and has broken stories which America’s mainstream media chose to ignore, including Democratic presidential contender John Edwards’s secret love child and Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Whether or not the gossip is true, the newly slim First Lady (she credits a vegetarian diet for a recent 10lb weight loss) seems to be soaring in self-confidence, showing off her figure in a succession of form-fitting designer gowns.

At her 50th birthday celebrations she was rarely by her husband’s side, with one guest saying: ‘She was working the room.

She’s looking better than ever and was exuding a sexiness and confidence that wasn’t there before.

‘She’s come into her own. Only time will tell what happens next.’

Source: The Mail