Stephen A. Smith complained about being compared to Bravo’s Real Housewives by former first lady Michelle Obama, telling Fox News: “The one thing you can never say about me is that I’ll be a housewife.”
In an episode of her podcast released last week, Obama likened Smith and his fellow ESPN pundits to the women of the Real Housewives franchise.
“If I listen to ESPN for an hour, it’s like watching the Real Housewives of Atlanta. It’s the same drama and they’re yelling at each other and they don’t get along,” she argued, adding, “What’s the difference? It’s just sociological drama.”
Smith was quick to fire back at Obama on his own podcast, telling the former first lady: “While you are revered by me personally... I’m still a bit salty at you.” He went on to say that he “respectfully disagreed” with her assessment before accusing her of having attempted to emotionally blackmail voters into voting one way or another in the 2024 presidential election.
Welcoming Smith onto his eponymous show, Fox host Sean Hannity said he found Obama’s comments insulting, particularly considering athletes “have dedicated their entire lives to reach the pinnacle of success... there’s no comparison to this reality housewives show.” Obama’s comments compared talk show hosts like Smith to the Real Housewives, not the athletes themselves.
Smith concurred, telling Hannity that there was “no relation” because his job involves talking about some of the greatest athletes in the world, “as opposed to reality TV stars who can barely act.”
He also pointed out that while to Obama’s untrained eye, it may look like he and his co-hosts argue all the time, “We’ve got a lot of love for one another, we get along just fine, we have a blast, laughing, joking and yelling about sports.”
Smith finished his missive with a message to Obama’s co-host, Craig Robinson, and guests Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers: “You can say Stephen A. Smith is a lot of things and will be a lot of things. The one thing you can never say about me is I’m gonna be a housewife. There’s no confusion there. Zero.”
