Michelle Obama just defended Ellen DeGeneres having a friendship with George W Bush
Michelle Obama hugs former President George Bush. (David Hume Kennerly via Bank of America/Getty)
Michelle Obama has just defended Ellen DeGeneres being friends with George W Bush, and discussed her own bond with the former president.
DeGeneres and her wife Portia de Rossi were photographed joking around with Bush and his wife in the VIP stand at an NFL game between the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers in .
But Obama told Bush’s daughter Jenna Bush Hager on the Today Show on Tuesday (December 10) that she saw no problem with the two of them being friends as she also had relationships with both of them.
Hager told the former first lady: “I think you’re friends with both Ellen and my dad.”
To which, Obama responded: “I had an opportunity to sit by your father at funerals, the highs and the lows, and we shared stories about our kids and about our parents.”
Michelle Obama has been criticised after viral videos showed them smiling, hugging and giving each other sweets.
She continued: “Our values are the same. We disagree on policy, but we don’t disagree on humanity, we don’t disagree about love and compassion. I think that’s true for all of us — it’s just that we get lost in our fear of what’s different.”
Watch part two of @MichelleObama’s interview with @jennabushhager about dropping her youngest daughter off at college, the 2020 election and her special friendship with former President George W. Bush. pic.twitter.com/wz9ZBAtpG6
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 10, 2019
DeGeneres has expressed similar sentiments in defending her friendship with Bush.
She said on her show after the pictures of her and Bush first emerged: “Here’s the thing, I’m friends with George Bush.
“In fact, I’m friends with a lot of people who don’t share the same beliefs that I have. We’re all different and I think we’ve forgotten that that’s OK that we’re all different.”
