--- title: Kimmel Got Michelle Obama To Open Up On Time in White House description: With Kimmel's help, Michelle Obama was finally able to admit that she has never eaten a vegetable canonical: https://time.com/5456886/michelle-obama-jimmy-kimmel/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-16T16:59:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:56:05.135Z og:title: The Things Michelle Obama Could Never Say in the White House og:description: She finally admitted that she has never eaten a vegetable og:url: https://time.com/5456886/michelle-obama-jimmy-kimmel/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Things Michelle Obama Could Never Say in the White House twitter:description: She finally admitted that she has never eaten a vegetable twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Jimmy Kimmel Got Michelle Obama to Say Everything She Couldn't While She Was in the White House by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Nov 16, 2018 4:59 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Nov 16, 2018 4:59 PM UTC Jimmy Kimmel had a question for his late night audience on Thursday: “You remember [Mrs. Obama](http://time.com/5188202/michelle-obama-meets-little-girl-looking-at-portrait/)? From when we had a United States?” Turns out the audience picked a great night to come to _Jimmy Kimmel Live!_ as the show was hosting a very special guest. “Our former First Lady is here to share stories from her new autobiography, _Becoming_,” Kimmel said, before joking, “As in, ‘What the hell is this country Becoming?’” When [Michelle Obama](http://time.com/5158961/obama-portrait-kehinde-wiley-amy-sherald-interview/) joined him on stage, Kimmel noted that during her time in the White House, the former First Lady had to be careful about what she said. Since she is no longer there, though, she can now basically say whatever she wants. To help her enjoy the newfound freedom, Kimmel presented her with a few note cards with things that Kimmel was pretty sure she wanted to say as the First Lady, but couldn’t while her husband was the president. Thanks to Kimmel’s insightful suggestions, Obama was able to admit, “The whole eight years we were in the White House we used Laura Bush’s Netflix password” and that despite her [healthy eating campaign](http://time.com/3715414/billy-on-the-street-michelle-obama/?iid=sr-link2), she has “never eaten a vegetable.” She also read a card that said, “I’m not sure which one is Sasha and which one is Malia.” While Kimmel wrote it, Obama couldn’t help but laugh, “You know? They agree!” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5456886/michelle-obama-jimmy-kimmel/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5456886/michelle-obama-jimmy-kimmel/"},"headline":"Jimmy Kimmel Got Michelle Obama to Say Everything She Couldn't While She Was in the White House","datePublished":"2018-11-16T16:59:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:56:05.135Z","description":"With Kimmel's help, Michelle Obama was finally able to admit that she has never eaten a vegetable","url":"https://time.com/5456886/michelle-obama-jimmy-kimmel/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Michelle Obama","Jimmy Kimmel","jimmy kimmel live","Late Night Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5456886/michelle-obama-jimmy-kimmel/","name":"Jimmy Kimmel Got Michelle Obama to Say Everything She Couldn't While She Was in the White House"}}]}] ```