Mary Shriver
After separating from Schwarzenegger, she sought help in the convent
Maria Shriver (2nd from right) with ex-husband Arnold Schwarzenegger and their children Christina, Patrick and Katherine.
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Maria Shriver has now admitted in an interview that she sought advice and help in a monastery after the breakup with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Their separation was 12 years ago, and they have been officially divorced since 2021. Now Maria Shriver (67), ex-wife of action star Arnold Schwarzenegger (75), has spoken more openly than ever about the difficult time after the marriage. Accordingly, she sought advice and help in a monastery.
“I went to a secluded monastery to have peace and seek advice,” explains the niece of assassinated US President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) in the podcast “Making Space with Hoda Kotb”. The leading nun of the convent told her at the end of her stay: “You can’t come and live here. But you can go out and become Maria.” Shriver: “I was sobbing: who is that?”
She often felt invisible
She never gave herself permission, Maria Shriver continued, “to feel, to be vulnerable, to be weak, to be brought to my knees, and the world took me there. And then I said, okay, God, I accept this and will learn everything I can about my role.”
Both her origins as a member of the Kennedy family and her marriage to Arnold Schwarzenegger often gave her the feeling of being invisible: “There were situations when I was standing next to Arnold or even next to my uncle, when I got angry inside, because I felt like people were coming up to us and not even realizing that I existed,” Shriver said. “And then I realized that it’s not about if they see me. Do I see myself? Am I visible to myself?”
Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger have been married for 25 years and have four children together. In 2011, Schwarzenegger confessed that he had secretly fathered a child, now 25-year-old Joseph Baena, with the family’s longtime housekeeper. Shortly thereafter, Maria Shriver filed for divorce.