Maria Shriver is reflecting on the moment she found out her husband at the time, Arnold Schwarzenegger, had an affair.
The journalist shares four children with her ex; Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt, 35, Christina Schwarzenegger, 33, The White Lotus actor Patrick Schwarzenegger, 31, and Christopher Schwarzenegger, 27.
Her marriage to the Kindergarten Cop star, 77, came to an end after his affair with the family housekeeper Mildred Baena was exposed. Schwarzenegger also fathered a son named Joseph Baena, 27, as a result of the affair.
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Speaking about the breakdown of her marriage, Shriver recalled: “As I sat on the hotel room floor in the dark, terrified and alone with tears streaming down my face. thought to myself: Maria, this doesn't have to be the end of the you. It can't be the end of you. Make it a new beginning of you.”
The excerpt is from Shriver’s new book, I Am Maria, obtained by People.
She said she was 'consumed with grief and wracked with confusion, anger, fear, sadness and anxiety'.
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On ending her 25-year marriage to the former Governor of California, Shriver added: “It broke my heart, it broke my spirit, it broke what was left of me.
“I was unsure now of who I was, where I belonged. Honestly, it was brutal, and I was terrified.”
Shriver filed for divorce in 2011 after learning about his infidelity. Schwarzenegger said he confessed to the affair during a counselling session.
"I have caused enough pain for my family because of my f--k up," he said in his 2023 documentary Arnold. "Everyone had to suffer. Maria had to suffer. The kids had to suffer. Joseph. His mother. Everyone."
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In the three-part Netflix documentary series, the actor said: "Maria and I went to counseling once a week.
"And in one of the sessions the counsellor said, 'I think today Maria wants to be very specific about something. She wants to know if you are the father of Joseph.' And I was like—I thought my heart stopped, and then I told the truth."
"She was crushed because of that," Schwarzenegger continued. "I had an affair in '96. In the beginning I really didn't know. I just started feeling the older he got the more it became clear to me and then it was really just a matter of how do you keep this quiet? How do you keep this a secret?"
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The former couple’s legal separation was finalised in 2021 and they maintain a cordial relationship.
While reflecting on the 'mistakes' she made in her life, Shriver said an important one was 'thinking that someone outside of me could guarantee my safety, my worth, and my peace'.
"I've also had to come face to face with other misguided beliefs—about ageing, about being alone," she added. "I used to believe that if you didn’t have a partner, you must be unworthy and unlovable. I've learned that nothing could be further from the truth."
Topics: Celebrity, Sex and Relationships
Gregory Robinson