Michelle Obama embellishes claim about Barack needing ‘30 stitches’ for busted lip while he was in White House

Michelle Obama claimed her husband, former President Barack Obama, needed an unbelievable “30-something stitches” in his lip after he split it open playing ball with White House staffers during his first term — when he really needed less than half of that. 

The former first lady made the untrue claim to her brother Craig Robinson during the pair’s most recent “IMO” podcast episode, where she revisited the embarrassing 2010 anecdote that stemmed from a pick-up basketball game at Fort McNair in Washington, DC.

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Michelle, 61, characterized the whole ordeal as an “I told you so” moment to her hubby.

“I’m always like, ‘Be careful playing basketball. You shouldn’t be playing now. You have a real important job’,” Michelle said of her apparently unheeded warnings at the time.

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“And literally, he’s coming in [the White House] with a gauze thing on his lip,” she said in the April 16 episode. 

“He needed like 30-something stitches,” she added. “He had some major speech on Monday, and I was like, ‘This is what I’m saying. You know, you’re playing like you’re 10 and now your lip is split’,” Michelle added.

The White House said at the time of the accident that President Obama received just 12 stitches to close up his cut lip. 

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But even that number of stitches was considered somewhat high for the severity of the injury, with White House doctors using extra-small sutures to avoid the possibility of scarring, CBS reported at the time.

Video from just after the accident showed the Obama family sans-Barack welcoming the White House Christmas tree as the mopey-looking president watched alone through a second-story window with ice on his lip.

The 2010 accident was jokingly dubbed “Elbowgate” at the time. Obama’s lip was busted from a blow delivered by Rey Decerega, an official with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.

Michelle said that the episode caused her to try to ban Barack — who famously enjoyed shooting hoops — from playing basketball while he was the commander in chief.