There have been persistent rumors for months that all is not well between former president and first lady Barack and Michelle Obama, as the formerly inseparable married couple of more than three decades have recently been spotted apart on several occasions.

That has led to an emergent theory that the Obamas are "soft-launching" an imminent divorce through the media to gauge the public's reaction, according to The Megyn Kelly Show.

The theory took flight following a report that Barack, sans Michelle, was seen grabbing dinner with their two adult daughters, Malia and Sasha, during a solo visit to Los Angeles, California this week.

Are the Obamas "soft launching" a divorce?

The possibility of an impending divorce for the Obamas was part of the discussion on Friday between SiriusXM podcast host Megyn Kelly and her guest, Daily Mail columnist Maureen Callahan.

Kelly cited media reports about former President Obama being spotted alone on Wednesday courtside at an NBA game between the L.A. Clippers and Detroit Pistons, which occurred just one night after he was spotted dining with his daughters, but not his wife and their mother, at a famous Thai restaurant in L.A.

"I think they seem to be soft launching their divorce," Callahan said of the Obamas. "I mean, if it were the opposite, and all of these rumors are flying, wouldn’t they make a concerted effort to be seen together, or just absolutely issue a statement saying there is no truth to these rumors?"

"I kind of think maybe they're not even sure, or maybe one wants it more than the other, you know," she added.

No "credible reason" given for Michelle's absence from major events

Kelly went on to point out that this wasn't the first notable public absence from her husband's side for former first lady Michelle, as she did not join Barack for either President Donald Trump's Inauguration or former President Jimmy Carter's state funeral.

Callahan noted that Michell never gave a "solid, credible reason" for her absence from those major public events that she'd otherwise be expected to attend, and further speculated how Michelle's "publicist or a crisis manager" could have spun those absences in a way that would have tamped down the rumors about marital troubles with Barack.

"Let’s say she had had some plastic surgery and Jimmy Carter happened to die during her recovery. Could you not say 'health reasons' and leave it at that?" she pondered. "Most people will respect that and not go near it. But she didn’t even say that, which made it seem like a very petty, vengeful move on her part."

Kelly shared that she understood why Michelle might not want to join Barack for the basketball game but was perplexed by her absence from the dinner with their daughters, and said, "Every parent who has girls who are in college is dying to spend time with their daughters. This is an opportunity to see both of them, and she is not there."

Barack and Michelle's Valentine's Day posts

Also discussed by Kelly and Callahan were the Valentine's Day social media posts from Barack and Michelle that featured the same picture but different captions from each of them, which Kelly described as being "ridiculously choreographed" and didn't "feel organic at all."

The host and her guest then had some fun speculatively reading between the lines and parsing the words of the two messages in search of subtle clues about the possibly fraught nature of their relationship.