NEW YORK - US First Lady Michelle Obama had at one time given her husband silent treatment during his presidential campaign because a large number of women used to flirt with the ex-senator, a new book has revealed.

Christopher Andersen’s book, titled ‘Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage’, claimed that many women “pushed their bodies up against his, slipped phone numbers into Obama’s pockets” and whispered lewd suggestions in his ear.

“On more than one occasion, Barack tried not to look startled when some random woman in the crowd would grasp him firmly by the derriere-and sometimes try to hold on,” The New York Post quoted the book as saying.

In fact, after an appearance in Peoria, Ill., the future president slid into the back of his SUV, and allegedly said, “Jesus, I wish they’d stop grabbing my ass.”

“Michelle, understandably was not amused,” wrote Andersen.

He quoted her as saying: “. . . I want to tell these women, ‘Back off. Get a life.’ It’s just embarrassing, that’s all.”

“Michelle knew that all the unseemly fawning nourished Barack’s admittedly already oversize ego. ‘He’s loving it,’ she muttered at one point. ‘He’s a man, isn’t he?’ Once again, she resorted to giving him the silent treatment,” said the book.

Andersen cited rumours “that it was more than just the random flirting from strangers that was getting to Michelle. Her husband, it would later be reported, had grown close to an attractive young African-American woman [working for the Obama campaign] named Vera Baker.

“When Baker suddenly and inexplicably vanished from the campaign and resurfaced on the Caribbean island of Martinique, tongues reportedly began wagging. A jealous Michelle, it was suggested, had engineered Baker’s departure.”

Andersen wrote that Baker later told a reporter, “Nothing happened . . . I don’t have anything to say.” (ANI)