Michelle Obama says her 15-year-old self would smile at "how cute" her husband is.

Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama

The former US First Lady has been interviewed by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, for the September issue of Britain's Vogue magazine and after asking Michelle what her teenage self would think of how her life has turned out, Michelle gave a playful response about her husband, former US President Barack Obama.

Meghan said: "If you were sitting down with your 15-year-old self, what do you think she would tell you, seeing who you have become today?"

Michelle said: "If I'm being honest, she'd probably smile about how cute my husband is."

Michelle also spoke about her early days of parenthood to Malia, 21, and Sasha, 18, and told the duchess to "savour" every moment with her and Prince Harry's newborn son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.

She said: "When Malia and Sasha were newborns, Barack and I could lose hours just watching them sleep. We loved to listen to the little sounds they'd make - especially the way they cooed when they were deep into dreaming. Don't get me wrong, early parenthood is exhausting. I'm sure you know a thing or two about that these days. But there is something so magical about having a baby in the house. Time expands and contracts; each moment holds its own little eternity. I'm so excited for you and Harry to experience that, Meghan. Savour it all."

And Michelle, 55, also spoke about what she has discovered about motherhood in the past 20 years.

She said: "Motherhood has taught me that, most of the time, my job is to give them the space to explore and develop into the people they want to be. Not who I want them to be or who I wish I was at that age, but who they are, deep inside. Motherhood has also taught me that my job is not to bulldoze a path for them in an effort to eliminate all possible adversity. But instead, I need to be a safe and consistent place for them to land when they inevitably fail; and to show them, again and again, how to get up on their own."

Her Royal Highness spent the last seven months secretly working on the approaching edition of the fashion magazine and shunned the opportunity to be on the front cover to focus on the diverse women who inspire her.

She chose 15 inspirational women for the cover, including Adwoa Aboah, Gemma Chan, Laverne Cox, Jane Fonda, Salma Hayek, Jameela Jamil and Sinéad Burke.

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