LOS ANGELES — Former California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, have separated, with Shriver
moving out of their mansion in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los
Angeles while the two determine the next step in their 25-year marriage.
Shriver has been residing apart from the
actor-turned-politician for the last few weeks. The former first couple
confirmed the separation in a joint statement released Monday after
questions were raised by the Los Angeles Times.
“This has been a time of great personal and
professional transition for each of us,” the statement read. “After a
great deal of thought, reflection, discussion and prayer, we came to
this decision together. At this time, we are living apart while we work
on the future of our relationship.
“We are continuing to parent our four children
together. They are the light and the center of both of our lives. We
consider this a private matter and neither we nor any of our friends or
family will have further comment. We ask for compassion and respect
from the media and the public.”
Over the years, the couple’s marriage has come under
close scrutiny, especially during the 2003 recall of California Gov.
Gray Davis, when the Times reported on Schwarzenegger’s lengthy history
of groping women. At the time, Shriver defended her husband, helping
lift him to victory in the free-for-all contest.
Since Schwarzenegger left office, it had seemed as
though the two were living separate lives. Shriver has worked on her
women’s empowerment website, guest edited an issue of Oprah Winfrey’s
magazine and promoted causes near to her heart, such as Alzheimer’s
research. She struggled with the death of her father, Sargent Shriver,
in January, and took her son Patrick and some of his friends on an East
Coast college tour in April.
Shriver, 55, spoke openly about the uncertainty she felt about moving on to the next phase of her life.
“It is so stressful to not know what you’re doing
next,” Shriver said in a March 28 YouTube video to supporters. Though
there was no intimation of a split, Shriver appeared without her wedding
ring. “I’d like to hear from other people in transition,” Shriver said.
“How did you get through it? What were three things that enabled you to
get through your transition?”
The former governor, 63, told a Times reporter in
April that he yearned for a show business comeback. It was later
announced that Schwarzenegger had signed on to star in three films,
including another installment in the “Terminator” series.
“The whole industry has not come up with a new line
of action heroes so (people say) let’s go see the mature ones — that’s
what I call them, the mature ones — because there’s nothing new around,”
Schwarzenegger said in the interview. “That’s good news for me.”
The couple met in 1977, when NBC’s Tom Brokaw
introduced Shriver to Schwarzenegger at a charity tennis tournament. The
two married in 1986, and have four children.
With their marriage, the Republican Schwarzenegger
entered one of the most storied Democratic dynasties in America; Shriver
is the daughter of the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
Their odd-couple political match was a source of
endless interest to outsiders, and good-natured ribbing on the part of
the couple, who often found themselves on opposites sides of political
campaigns. In 2008, Shriver delivered a high-profile endorsement of
Barack Obama on the eve of the California primary. Schwarzenegger backed
the GOP nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain.
Schwarzenegger was immensely popular in his first
year in office, animated by dramatic Hollywood-style campaigning. But he
left office last January sobered by years of budget difficulties and
suffering from a fractious relationship with legislators from both
parties.
Shriver emerged as perhaps the most prominent and
powerful first lady in California history, promoting volunteerism and
assuming control of cultural institutions like the state history museum
in Sacramento.
She also presided over the state’s annual California
Governor’s Conference on Women and Families, turning the event into an
affair that drew tens of thousands of women, a raft of celebrity
attendees and a crowd of corporate sponsors.
Perhaps her most crucial role as political helpmate
came in the waning days of the recall election, after the Times report
on Schwarzenegger’s behavior. At a rally in San Diego, the actor
acknowledged before several hundred chanting supporters that, “Yes, I
have behaved badly sometimes.
“Yes, it is true that I was on rowdy movie sets,” he
went on, “and I have done things that were not right, which I thought
then was playful. But I now recognize that I have offended people. And
to those people that I have offended, I want to say to them, I am deeply
sorry about that, and I apologize.”
Appearing alongside her husband later that day at a
news conference, Shriver blunted the political impact of the story by
vouching for Schwarzenegger, saying the sexual misconduct allegations
“show why really good people don’t want to go into politics anymore.”
“I don’t get into specifics,” she told reporters. “As
I say to my children, it always takes great courage to do — stand
before anybody and apologize,” she said. “I think that’s what Arnold did
today. I think he handled it and his statement speaks for itself.”
The two celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary
April 26, a day they let pass without public comment, in contrast to
their usual stream of commentary in various social media.
Their postings over the last few months offered a
picture of a couple leading separate lives. Since Schwarzenegger left
office, he has been jetting around the world, heading to Brazil’s Xingu
River with director James Cameron, to Nigeria for a paid speech, to
London for Mikhail Gorbachev’s 80th birthday party, to Val d’Isere in
France for skiing and to Washington, D.C., to attend a White House
summit on immigration reform.
In late March, Schwarzenegger announced a
collaboration with famed comic book creator Stan Lee, saying, “I have
never had a conversation with Maria about any of this. I think it will
be a big surprise.”
Shriver mentioned the East Coast college tour and, in
early April, visited the Bahamas while Schwarzenegger headed to Cannes
to receive the Legion D’Honneur medal and promote his project with Lee.
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