Michelle Obama's Love For HGTV Proves She'll Always Be The Most Relatable First Lady

When you think about the leader of the free world and his household, you certainly don't picture him and his wife sprawled on the couch catching the latest episode of "Renovation Island," or bickering over whether they should put on "Rock the Block" or "Fixer Upper." But that's exactly what makes the Obamas so refreshingly different from the others. Michelle Obama, the former FLOTUS, and her husband, Barack, the 44th POTUS, don't just pretend to live a life similar to everyday Americans – they actually commit to it unreservedly. And they certainly don't imagine they're above trashy television. In fact, Michelle has zero shame about admitting that just like the rest of us, her idea of winding down involves watching people argue about granite countertops on HGTV.

In a May 2025 appearance on "Good Hang with Amy Poehler," Michelle dropped what could arguably be the most relatable revelation in first lady history: The wholesome fact that she's a HGTV superfan. "My version of golf to Barack, because he's got golf on all the time — he says, 'It's my background noise' — so my version of that is HGTV," she explained to Poehler, per People magazine. Specifically, Michelle loves to catch "House Hunters."

Watching golf is certainly not among Barack Obama's annoying habits that Michelle has publicly put on blast, but this actually establishes that the Obamas negotiate screen time like the rest of us, and her preference is watching couples and families tour different houses and debate which is better; a cultural phenomenon that's somehow convinced millions of viewers that nitpicking over paint colors and arguing about closet space is actually entertainment. If the woman who spent eight years in the White House can binge that unapologetically, then so can we.

It's fascinating to chronicle how life for Michelle Obama changed since leaving the White House, giving way to a measure of normalcy again. It's not just the fact that Michelle could talk about "House Hunters" for hours on end. The former first lady has, after all, addressed this habit on multiple occasions, revealing other obsessions like "The Real Housewives" on iHeartRadio's "Las Culturistas" podcast (per SheKnows). At the time, she admitted to watching "it all" and called the experience "soothing."

But Michelle's authenticity actually extends beyond TV preferences. In her memoir "Becoming," she wrote about everything from her experience with marriage counseling, to the frustrations of trying to achieve a healthy work-life balance. There was also that instance when she hugged Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace in 2009 after they bonded over their sore feet from walking in high heels all day. Because, at the end of the day, whether you're reshaping American politics or ruling over the British Commonwealth, we're all just mortals who sometimes need to bond with a stranger over shared misery. Sometimes, that happens in the form of watching people looking for a new house.

A reality TV obsession might be one of the things you never knew about Michelle Obama, but as she explained on the "Work in Progress" podcast (per People) it's to do with the fact that it's "a part of life." The Obamas have also had a hand in Netflix's "The Later Daters" — a series following baby boomers re-entering the dating world — through their company Higher Ground Productions.

So, the next time you're three episodes into a "House Hunters" binge at an ungodly hour of night, just remember: Michelle Obama gets it. She really, truly gets it.