At 70, Maria Shriver has finally revealed the heartbreaking truth about what Arnold Schwarzenegger did that made their divorce inevitable—and the betrayal runs deeper than anyone ever imagined.
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In her new memoir, I Am Maria, Shriver opens up about the 25-year marriage that ended in 2011 after Schwarzenegger admitted he had fathered a child with their family’s housekeeper, Mildred “Patty” Baena, more than a decade earlier.
Shriver revealed that she didn’t learn about the affair until during a couples counseling session in 2011, when Schwarzenegger finally confessed the truth. “I was terrified,” she said. “It broke my heart, it broke my spirit, it broke what was left of me.” The secret had been hidden for 14 years, and the child—Joseph Baena, now 27—had been living just miles away from their home while Shriver raised four children with Arnold, unaware that her husband had another son.
The betrayal wasn’t just about the affair—it was about the years of deception. Shriver said she felt “measured by an impossible standard” and struggled with the fear that she wasn’t enough. “I used to believe that if you didn’t have a partner, you must be unworthy and unloveable,” she confessed. “I’ve learned that nothing could be further from the truth.”
The divorce was finalized in December 2021, a full decade after they separated. Schwarzenegger has since admitted he “inflicted enough pain on my family due to my mistakes” and apologized publicly for the hurt he caused.