Michelle Obama moans she endured ‘white hot glare’ as first lady

Former first lady Michelle Obama griped about the “white hot glare” of public pressure she endured “as a black woman” during her White House days while reflecting on her fashion choices.

Obama, 61, who revealed that she feels more confident than ever now that she’s in her golden years and her husband is “settled,” harped on the pressures of fashion while promoting her new book, “The Look,” in which she described how she tried to convey messages through her attire.

“We were all too aware that as a first black couple, we couldn’t afford any missteps.’ And that as a black woman, I was under a particularly white hot glare,” the former first lady wrote in her book.

The darling of the fashion world and three-time Vogue cover model argued that “we didn’t get the grace that I think some other families have gotten.”

“Making a mistake in a political environment where you’re the first and people are where your opponents are using your race as a fear-based strategy to make you seem like the other, then everything matters,” she reflected to ABC News’ “20/20” in an interview with Robin Roberts.

During her White House days, Obama had been apprehensive about discussing fashion because she felt it was a “distraction” and that it was important for the public to “know me by the work that I did and not what I looked like.”

But now that the public knows her, the former first lady feels the time is ripe to dish on her wardrobe choices, which she calls a “soft power.”

“You know, style and fashion, and how we show up in the world is an important way that we send a message,” she explained. “What you’re wearing says something about what you care about. It speaks to your background, your culture. So, I really thought about what I wanted to say.”

Looming over her attire was a concern about the “mothers and grandmothers out there who I knew would be shaking their head if I didn’t show up right.”

“We live in a culture, sadly, where, you know, if somebody wants to go after a woman, the first thing they do is go after our looks, our size, our physical being, as a way to, you know, make us feel small, to keep us in place,” she said.

She also complained that there’s a “tendency for certain designers to feel like they own the first lady.”

“So like anything else, that kind of attitude blocks out opportunities from other designers. So I thought about that,” Obama said.

The former first lady co-authored her book with her stylist, which features photos of Obama throughout her time in the political limelight and explanations for her fashion choices.

Over the past year, Obama made waves when she skipped two high-profile political events, Jimmy Carter’s funeral and President Trump’s inauguration, leaving her husband to attend both of them alone.

She later blamed her decision to snub Trump’s inauguration on her not knowing what to wear.

Her absence at the time fueled rumors about her marriage, which both she and her husband Barack shot down over the summer.

Despite all the drama, the former first lady insists that she’s living her best life now.

“You know, there’s something about the 60s. It is the best time of my life now that my daughters are launched and doing well,” she said. “My husband’s settled. There’s a certain freedom that I feel I’m at that stage in life where I can say, ‘Yeah, maybe I know a few things.’”