Robin Roberts talks interviewing Michelle Obama in Chicago and the surprises in Obama’s new memoir

“Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts recalls meeting Michelle Obama at a photo shoot in New York years ago, as Barack Obama was emerging as a political star. Roberts said she was struck by how approachable and relatable the future first lady seemed.

“She got on the phone and she was fussing with her husband a little bit because he acted like he didn’t know that she had that trip to New York for the day, and the girls were very little at the time. And she said, ‘You know that I put on the refrigerator two weeks ago that I was coming here to New York.’ And I thought, ‘Ohmigosh, she’s just like us, putting notes on the refrigerator for her spouse, and he acted like he didn’t see it.’ So we hit it off right off the bat,” Roberts told the Tribune by phone.

More than a decade later, Obama took Roberts on a tour of Chicago and discussed her forthcoming memoir, “Becoming,” for an ABC network special that’s scheduled to air at 8 p.m. Sunday. Roberts and Obama last week visited her childhood home in the South Shore community; surprised a dance class at Whitney Young Magnet High School, her Near West Side alma mater; and stopped by a bench where she had her first kiss. They talked about the book, due out Tuesday, at Obama’s home in the South Side Kenwood neighborhood.

Roberts is scheduled to interview Obama again in Chicago on Tuesday for “GMA,” just hours before Obama is set to kick off her book tour at the United Center with a discussion moderated by Oprah Winfrey. Tickets to attend the live “GMA” segment are available here. The following are highlights from our conversation.

Q: Was there anything in the book that surprised you?

A: Oh gosh, yes. So much. I didn’t know that she and Barack had difficulty when it comes to something that many couples deal with, and that is fertility, and that she had a miscarriage. I was not aware of that.

Also the fact that she was very open about discussing that she and her husband have gone to marriage counseling. And when I sat down and talked with her about both of those issues and I asked her, why did she want to share so much of that? And she said, ‘Because it’s real life.’

And I know that she knows that it’s something that a lot of people deal with, especially the marriage counseling, because you see that they have a terrific marriage, and she just wanted young people to understand that marriages are hard work and they take work. And she’s very grateful that they received the counseling and were better able to communicate.

And also the fertility issue, people don’t talk about miscarriages. And I asked her, what was said to her to help her through it? And she said it was just such a great loss, and you feel like, as a woman, that you made a mistake of some sort, but she has this wonderful community of friends and when she was talking to them about it and they all were sharing too that they had gone through it. And it’s something that she just wants to lift the veil and let people be able to discuss it and be able to know that they’re not alone when they’re going through something like that.

Q: What was it like walking in with her to Whitney Young and meeting with those students?

A: That was my favorite part because that is Michelle Obama. She is all about connecting with young people. And so when the principal announced that there was a special guest, she was behind the door. And they open the door and she walks into this dance class, my ears are still ringing from the young people screaming and clutching their hearts and the tears and just surrounding her.

We were only supposed to spend a few minutes in there. We were probably in there half an hour. Mrs. Obama was speaking to the girls, asking them if they had any questions. They had a dance routine for her. She told them that she was donating 10 percent of the (United Center) seats to some of the students there and other organizations there in Chicago. That is a moment that those young women and men are never going to forget.

Q: Why should people tune in to the special?

A: They should tune in because it will be very uplifting. I know when I was reading (the book), I was nodding along, and many of her experiences were my experiences. I think — I know — a lot of people will relate to it.

I think people will be stunned at the level of her self-doubt. Throughout the book she was saying, as a young person, even when she got to the White House, ‘Am I good enough? Am I good enough?’ And this is a woman who has two Ivy League degrees, has done all that she has, has come from humble beginnings. Her parents, like many parents of her generation, they put many of their aspirations on hold for their children.

It is a true American story, and it will be one that many people reading it will nod along like I did, and they’ll have a better understanding of (the Obamas’) eight years in Washington, their hopes and dreams for the country then and now, and I just feel that they’ll close the book and they’ll feel better about themselves and better about everything in general. It will be very uplifting, powerful, insightful, revealing.

Q: What else should we know about the special or the other interview you have coming up with her?

A. I think people should know, and I think they already know, she loves Chicago and the people of Chicago, and you don’t have to be in politics to be of service.

She is somebody that is still so young, both she and her husband, and I just feel that people will really get a better sense of her devotion to her family, to her country and how she wants to uplift women in particular in all walks of life.

The one time that she got emotional during our interview is when we showed her a video that we had taken at Princeton (University, her alma mater). At first we showed her the picture that she had posted on Instagram earlier this year of herself in front of the Princeton library and she’s a chubby-cheeked undergrad.

Then we showed her a video of these different women, women of color, Latin women, black women, and they were saying how thankful they were to her and how they appreciated the example that she set and how important her journey was for their journey to be at Princeton now.

We played the video and I looked up at her and her eyes were welling. And I was like, wow, that’s all she wants to do. She just wants to make an impact, and if she can feel that she has made somebody’s life better, that she has given them something to use to reach their goals … I just really was able to truly sense that that is her purpose in life, to make a difference in the lives of young people.

“GMA” airs at 7 a.m. on weekdays on WLS-Ch. 7.

tswartz@tribpub.com

Twitter @tracyswartz