Maria Shriver’s divorce from Arnold Schwarzenegger was “brutal”. The 69-year-old has detailed the collapse of her 25-year marriage to the actor and former governor of California in her book of poetry, I Am Maria, in which she also writes her life “blew up” in 2011 after her now 77-year-old ex admitted to fathering a child with their housekeeper, Mildred Baena.
Revealing in the book how his affair left her “wracked with confusion, anger, fear, sadness, and anxiety”, Shriver added in an excerpt obtained by People: “It broke my heart, it broke my spirit, it broke what was left of me.
“Without my marriage, my parents, a job – the dam of my lifelong capital-D Denial just blew apart.”
Journalist and author Shriver filed for divorce from Schwarzenegger in July 2011, though the proceedings were not finalised until December 2021.
She also used her book to reflect on the impact of the separation on her children, Katherine, 35, Christina, 33, Patrick, 31, and 27-year-old Christopher.
Shriver added: “Everything about their world and the sanctity of their home got uprooted in an instant,” she wrote, praising them for showing “grace, valor, and courage”.
The end of Shriver’s marriage to Schwarzenegger followed his admission he had fathered a son, Joseph Baena, now 27, with housekeeper Mildred, 64, in 1997.
Shriver added in her book she “was consumed with grief” and “was unsure now of who I was, where I belonged” in the wake of the scandal.
Schwarzenegger spoke about the fallout in his self-titled 2023 Netflix documentary, saying: “I had to go to my kids and explain it to them. The reason I feel reluctant talking about it is because every time I do, it opens up the wounds again. I think that I have caused enough pain for my family because of my f*** up.”
The Jingle All The Way star added: “I am going to have to live with it the rest of my life. People will remember my successes and they will also remember my failures. This is a major failure.”
I Am Maria will be released on Apr 1.
