Fact Check: Altered images of Michelle Obama misgender former US First Lady

Hyderabad: Several social media users are widely sharing a photo of former First Lady of the United States of America Michelle Obama with a misleading narrative. The viral image has Michelle Obama with a mustache and a manly face posing for a picture with the former US president and her husband Barack Obama.

The viral posts are trying to establish a false narrative about the gender of Michelle Obama. A similar image of the Obamas was also shared claiming that Michelle was a male before their marriage.

These posts have gone viral since Mr and Mrs Obama’s 30th marriage anniversary on October 3, 2022.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found the claim to be utterly false.

By performing a simple reverse image search, we spotted the real photo of the Obamas posing for the exact same image in front of a Christmas tree. We found the same image being posted on the Twitter and Instagram handles of Michelle Obama in 2014.

In the original pictures, we could not spot any masculine features as shown in the viral pictures. We also spotted the same picture on one of the campaign websites of Obama, captioned as a Christmas pic of Hawaii.

For further clarity, a comparison image can be seen below.

Hence, it is evident that the viral images are altered to spread a fake agenda.