Why is Michelle Obama not attending the inauguration? What to know

Editor's Note: The live blog for Inauguration Day can be found here. Live coverage begins at 9 a.m. CT in the player above.

A number of high-profile attendees could be seen arriving at President Donald Trump's inauguration Monday, but one notable name was missing: former First Lady Michelle Obama.

While former presidents Barack Obama, George Bush and Bill Clinton arrived at the events, drawing applause from the audience, only two former first ladies were there.

Michelle Obama wasn’t with the former U.S. leaders and their spouses at former President Jimmy Carter’s state funeral earlier this month either.

No explanation has been given for her absences, though CNN reported before the funeral that the she had a scheduling conflict and remained in Hawaii, where she had been on an “extended vacation.”

Here's a list of celebrities and notable figures known to be in attendance Monday:

• Elon Musk, Tesla and X
• Jeff Bezos, Amazon
• Mark Zuckerberg, Meta
• Tim Cook, Apple
• Sundar Pichai, Google
• Vivek Ramaswamy
• Argentinian President Javier Milei
• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni
• Chinese Vice President Han Zheng
• Sam Altman, OpenAI
• Rupert Murdoch, business and media mogul
• Wayne Gretzky, former NHL player
• Carrie Underwood, musician
• Conor McGregor, boxer and MMA fighter
• Jake and Logan Paul, influencers

Other attendees of note include the slate of performers for Inauguration Day.

Country music star Carrie Underwood will perform “America the Beautiful” and the 1970s hitmakers Village People will perform at two inaugural events. The list of inauguration ceremony performers also included two of the president-elect’s musical favorites, country singer Lee Greenwood and opera singer Christopher Macchio.