Arnold Schwarzenegger's Ex-Wife Maria Shriver Admits 'Brutal' Divorce 'Broke' Her – After Movie Star Destroyed Marriage By Having an Affair With Their Housekeeper
Shriver shared her emotions after learning of Schwarzenegger's affair.
March 24 2025, Published 8:00 p.m. ET
Maria Shriver has shared the revelation that her then-husband Arnold Schwarzenegger's affair with their housekeeper, which led to the birth of their son, Joseph, left her devastated, RadarOnline.com can report.
The former news anchor is opening up about her heartache in her new book of poetry, I Am Maria.
The couple were married for 25 years.
Shriver, 69, was married to the bodybuilder-turned-actor-turned-governor for 25 years. She details in her new book her first impression of the muscle man.
She wrote: "Thirty-year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger looked and sounded different from anyone I’d ever met. My attraction to him was instantaneous."
The two had what was thought to be a magical marriage until the actor’s affair with his housekeeper, Mildred Baena. Arnold and Mildred kept their relationship and secret son from his wife until 2011, when Shriver confronted Baena inside their home – where she admitted to sleeping with Schwarzenegger.
Shriver wrote of the admission: "It broke my heart, it broke my spirit, it broke what was left of me."
Shriver has a new book of poetry out in which she reflects on the revelation.
She contined: "I was consumed with grief and wracked with confusion, anger, fear, sadness, and anxiety. I was unsure now of who I was, where I belonged. Honestly, it was brutal, and I was terrified.
"As I sat on my hotel room floor in the dark, alone with tears streaming down my face, I thought to myself: Maria, this doesn’t have to be the end of you."
Shriver confessed she tracked down "various therapists, healers, shamans, and psychics" to help her recovery.
Shriver said her husband's reveal left her 'wracked with confusion.'
In the 2023 Netflix docuseries Arnold, the former governor of California shared his side of the story, opening up about the moment he broke the news of his love child to Shriver.
Schwarzenegger said in the docuseries: "Maria and I went to counseling once a week. And in one of the sessions the counselor 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."
The former body builder admitted his affair began in 1996, a year before Joseph was born in October 1997.
"Schwarzenegger confessed: "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?"
The former California lawmaker noted that even years later, he was "reluctant talking about it because every time I do it opens up the wounds again."
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Schwarzenegger acknowledged the error of his ways and how his well-kept secret impacted those closest to him.
He continued: "I think that I have caused enough pain for my family because of my f--- up. Everyone had to suffer. Maria had to suffer. The kids had to suffer. Joseph. His mother. Everyone."
The star added that he was "going to have to live with it the rest of my life."
He continued: "People will remember my successes, and they will also remember my failures. This is a major failure. I had failures in the past in my career, but this is a whole different ballgame, dimension of failure."
