Michelle Obama opens up on skipping Trump's second inauguration

• Obama also didn't attend the late President Jimmy Carter's funeral in January.

What she's saying: "My decision to skip the inauguration; you know what people don't realize ... my decision to make choices at the beginning of this year that suited me were met with such ridicule and criticism," Obama said in a discussion with Robinson and guest Taraji P. Henson.

• "People couldn't believe that I was saying no for any other reason, that they had to assume that my marriage was falling apart," she said.
• "While I'm here, really trying to own my life and intentionally practice making the choice that was right for me, and it took everything in my power to not do the thing that was right, or that was was that that was perceived as right, but do the thing that was right for me," Obama added.
• "That was a hard thing for me to do."

Zoom in: Obama said she had to trick herself and it started with intentionally not bringing something fitting to wear "because I'm always prepared for any funeral, anything."

• "I walk around with the right dress. I travel with clothes just in case something pops off," she said. "So I was like, if I'm not going to do this thing, I gotta tell my team I don't even want to have a dress ready."

• The former first lady said she's now trying to teach her and former President Obama's daughters Malia, 26, and Sasha, 23, to "start practicing now the art of saying no."
• She sees it in them — "pleasing, excelling, not wanting to take anything for granted, always showing gratitude, feeling like they're enough right now, right?" she said. "It's a practice. It's a muscle that you have to build, because if you don't constantly build it, you don't develop it."