From 2014 satire to AI posts: How a baseless rumor about Jennifer Aniston and Obama gained traction

Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona once famously defended his Democratic competitor, then-Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, when a woman at a Minnesota town hall falsely described Obama as "an Arab."

"No, ma’am," McCain responded at the 2008 event, taking the microphone back from her. "He’s a decent family man and citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues."

Nearly 17 years later, with two Obama presidential terms in the rearview, the nation’s first Black president has endured mountains of criticism while largely maintaining his reputation as the "family man" McCain described.

Now, after former first lady Michelle Obama skipped two major events, a slew of social media accounts seek to sully that narrative with unsubstantiated claims about a Hollywood affair involving Obama and "Friends" actor Jennifer Aniston —  and artificial intelligence-generated images have helped it spread.

"The 'Obama drama' isn't stopping," read one caption that populated nearly four dozen posts flagged by Meta as part of its efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

The posts showed a fabricated image of Obama and Aniston facing each other on a beach, her arms on his shoulders while another image pasted below it showed the Obamas back to back with what looked like a courtroom scene behind them.

"Rumors continue to swirl around the former president and the 'Friends' actress. Barack Obama and Jennifer Aniston go viral after an alleged message confirming relationship rumors is leaked," the duplicated captions read.

(Screenshot from Facebook)

Looking closely at the image’s top-right corner, you’ll find on many of the posts small text that reads, "AI-generated." But this disclaimer is far less attention-grabbing than the image itself — and we saw the picture spreading on other platforms without any disclaimer at all, including one viewed more than 4 million times.

Asked about this AI-fueled trend, Joel Penney, associate professor at Montclair State University specializing in social media, critical/cultural studies and political communication, recalled that earlier unsubstantiated claims fixated on Obama’s sexuality, even though he had left the White House years earlier.

Right-wing supporters latch on to these narratives because it fits with their image of leftists and progressives being sexually deviant or "decadent" people, Penney said.

People still have an "obsession" with recasting Obama not as a "faithful, traditional family man," but a "decadent, elite, immoral character."

Penney and Jenny Rice, professor of writing, rhetoric and digital media at the University of Kentucky, said that the AI watermark on the Facebook image isn’t much of a deterrent, because the image communicates something that people feel is true. She said people who share these images while knowing they are fabricated "communicate ‘a’ truth, even if not ‘the’ truth."

"We're seeing more amplifications of narratives around Democrats ‘falling apart,’ which are really interesting to compare with earlier conspiracy narratives around Democrats as some kind of all-powerful cabal," Rice told PolitiFact, referring to the QAnon conspiracy theory that prevailed during President Donald Trump’s first term. "It's definitely a sharp 180: Democrats from in ‘total control’ with dark and shadowy dealings vs. Democrats as ‘regular people’ whose lives seem laughably messy."

Rice said Obama is "especially important," given Trump’s animosity towards him. Trump relentlessly pushed another ridiculously false narrative about Obama — that he wasn’t a U.S. citizen — years before announcing his own plans to run for the nation’s highest office.

"‘Punishing’ Obama by making his life seem messy, unseemly, unrespectable, laughable is part of Trump (and his supporters) continuing their grievance. He's being knocked off his ‘pedestal,’" Rice said. Apart from Barack Obama, Michelle Obama has also been the subject of numerous false claims.

The evidence-free claim linking Obama to one of the world’s leading sitcom stars has its roots in a decade-old satirical essay from The Economist.

The 2014 essay also contained other ridiculously obvious falsehoods: that Obama had four children with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and was romantically linked with journalist Katie Couric, and that former President George W. Bush had divorced Laura Bush and married musician and singer Beyonce.

In August 2024, celebrity magazine In Touch cited The Economist’s satire in its own article that accompanied its front page headline, "The Truth About Jen & Barack." 

It also said "Who? Weekly" podcast host Lindsey Weber, co-host of the podcast "Who? Weekly" floated the rumor but she also said it "obviously could be made up.’" Snopes confirmed Weber discussed the rumor in a July subscriber-only episode.

In October 2024, Aniston addressed the rumor on Jimmy Kimmel Live, saying, "That is absolutely untrue." She said she met Barack Obama only once, and that she knows Michelle Obama more. PolitiFact contacted Aniston’s publicist but did not hear back. Obama’s office declined to comment.

Michelle Obama skipped President Jimmy Carter’s state funeral Jan. 9 and Trump’s inauguration Jan. 20. That decision prompted unsourced speculation, including from McCain’s daughter Meghan McCain, about whether it signaled marital problems for Obama. DailyMail.com, speculated in a headline that the Obamas could be "headed for divorce, but cited no credible evidence. 

On Jan. 17, Barack Obama made a post wishing his wife a happy birthday, calling her "the love of my life." Michelle reposted it to her X account, saying, "Love you, honey!"

Following Michelle Obama’s absence from Trump’s inauguration, social media posts about Obama and Aniston became more frequent, particularly on Facebook. Facebook profiles and pages made dozens of posts about the rumor — some even making multiple posts per minute — often linking to external sites in the comments that present no proof of the claim.

Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly discussed it on "The Megyn Kelly Show" and posted a clip Jan. 23 on Facebook. She cited a Jan. 15 Substack article by Jessica Reed Kraus, who published what she said was a "DM" or direct message from another person who said that Aniston "herself admitted it."’

"I do not know whether this is true at all, but if it is true, it truly would be a political earthquake in Democrat circles," Kelly said.

Antonio Brown, a former professional football player, posted the same AI-generated image Jan. 23 on X, where it drew 4.1 million views as of Jan. 28. Four days earlier, AlphaFox, an account that previously circulated a false claim about fake Haitian voters and is associated with Russian campaign Storm-1516, shared a different AI-generated image of Obama and Aniston, captioned, "Did they do it or what’s the deal?"

The X account @amuse — which describes itself as "Conservative Headlines w/ a Dash of Satire and Ai" and whose posts Trump ally Elon Musk regularly amplifies — also pushed the narrative using an image created with X’s AI-tool, Grok: "BARRISTON? It occured to me that President Trump could simply ask the Secret Service to let him know if Jennifer Aniston and Barack Obama are dating," the Jan. 24 post read.

Penney said rumors involving sex scandals and famous people will get clicks on the internet, and that celebrity gossip is a "very proven formula" for getting attention. But he said the claim about an affair between Obama and Aniston also carries a "political undertone," which is why it gained traction among more partisan figures.

CORRECTION, Feb. 6, 2025: We corrected the title for Jenny Rice, who is a University of Kentucky professor of writing, rhetoric and digital media.