Michelle Obama did not attend former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral on Thursday due to a scheduling conflict, aides to the former first lady told CNN.
She was in Hawaii at the time on an extended holiday vacation, her advisers told CNN’s Jeff Zeleny.
“Mrs. Obama sends her thoughts and prayers to the Carter family, and everyone who loved and learned from the remarkable former President,” Crystal Carson, a spokesperson for Michelle Obama, said in a statement to Politico.
Her husband, Barack Obama, did attend the event, and sat beside President-elect Donald Trump. Michelle Obama apparently would have been seated there had she attended. All five living presidents were at the ceremony; Michelle Obama was the only spouse who did not attend.
Trump and the Obamas do not have a friendly history. Trump routinely attacks his predecessor and for years pushed a racist conspiracy theory that he was not born in the U.S.
The Obamas campaigned fiercely against Trump in the past two elections. Barack Obama warned in August that another Trump term would mean “four more years of bluster and bumbling and chaos.” His wife, in her own speech at the Democratic National Convention, said Trump has done “everything in his power to try and make people fear us.”
“His limited narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by two hardworking, successful people who happened to be Black,” she said.
On the campaign trail, Trump called her “nasty” and asked if he was “allowed to hit her” back, a turn of phrase that many interpreted as a threat.
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Trump and Barack Obama were seen chatting, smiling and laughing together at the funeral in an exchange that went viral. Trump later addressed the moment, saying, “It did look very friendly, I must say. I didn’t realize how friendly it looked.”
“We met backstage, as you know, before we went on. And I thought it was a beautiful service. But we all got along very well, which is good,” he added.