Michelle Obama: Bangs Were "My Mid-Life Crisis"

The first lady tells Rachael Ray that the bangs were part of her mid-life crisis. (Photo: CBS)
The first lady tells Rachael Ray that the bangs were part of her mid-life crisis. (Photo: CBS)

When First Lady Michelle Obama stepped out in January sporting chic bangs, the style experts called them "flattering and youthful" and declared bangs the new "it" hairstyle. But now the fashion-forward first lady says that she blames her cut on a "mid-life crisis."

"This is my mid-life crisis, the bangs," she says during a Skype interview with cookbook author and talk show host Rachael Ray. The first lady turned 49 on January 17.

"I couldn't get a sports car," she explains. "They won't let me bungee jump. So instead, I cut my bangs."

Opportunities for self expression are few and far between when you're First Lady of the United States. When every minor decision causes a major uproar -- witness the reaction to her clandestine trips to Target in 2011 -- it's no wonder that "normalcy" is one of the things Mrs. Obama has said she misses most about life before the White House.

"It's the ability to walk out through a door and go for a walk on any given day," she told Yahoo! Shine in a 2011 interview. "It's also being among people in a normal set of interactions. You forget how important that is just in establishing who you are in the world, in a sense, just having people normally responding to you."

"Standing, ordering an ice cream cone and having the kid behind the counter ignore me just like he's ignoring everyone else he's serving is really refreshing!" she added at the time.

During her interview with Rachael Ray, which is scheduled to air Wednesday on CBS, the two also discussed Oscar nominations (Mrs. Obama loved "Argo," "Lincoln," and "Beasts of the Southern Wild") and the memorabilia that the first lady keeps in her office. Among her favorites? Military coins.

"Any time I go to a military base or meet with a service member, this is one of the important ways that they thank you for whatever you are doing," she said, holding up a coin. "And I collect these like diamonds."

Also on Shine:

Karl Lagerfeld doesn't care for Michelle Obama's Bangs
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