Maria Shriver Files for Divorce

By Christine Fenno Posted Jul 2nd 2011 08:21AM

It's Independence Day for Maria Shriver, who filed for divorce on Friday in Los Angeles from Arnold Schwarzenegger after 25 years of marriage. Her divorce petition cites "irreconcilable differences."

According to multiple reports, there is no prenup.

The news comes six weeks after the former California governor, 63, publicly acknowledged that he fathered a child with a housekeeper. Mildred Baena retired in January after 20 years working for the family.

The power couple allegedly separated when Shriver, 55, moved out of their Brentwood, Calif., mansion upon learning about the paternity of Baena's son, who was born in 1997, days before the birth of Shriver and Schwarzenegger's youngest son, Christopher. In May, Schwarzenegger apologized in a statement: "There are no excuses and I take full responsibility for the hurt I have caused."

Of the couple's four children, two (Katherine and Christina) are now adults. Shriver will likely agree to share custody of Christopher, 13, and Patrick, 17, with her soon-to-be ex.

The Austrian-born movie star and the American broadcast journalist -- who met in 1977 and married in a 1986 Catholic wedding in Massachusetts -- remain on speaking terms, according to TMZ sources, and expect an amicable division of assets.

They allegedly plan to split hundreds of millions of dollars jointly earned during the marriage. TMZ estimates Schwarzenegger's worth at approximately $300 million and Shriver's at $100 million. The divorce will not go to trial if the couple agrees to settle out of court quietly, and details of the final property settlement will likely be confidential.

Shriver, an Emmy and Peabody award winner, was spotted overseas last week in Athens, Greece, greeting Special Olympics athletes with a smile. She flew there to speak at the dedication of a statue of her late mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who founded the Special Olympic Games.

Tags: arnold schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver

Comments

(38)

Saturday 02 July

By Stephanie

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Good for you Maria!

By New York

Well it is about time you came to your senses. What on earth were you thinking anyway??? This freak of a man should be kicked to the curb with the rest of the garbage. Maria I always thought you could do so much better. He is a liar, and a cheat, no loyalty there that's for sure. You Kennedy women have to stop enabling your men by sticking by them & their evil ways. Not a good example for your children to follow.

By Kathryn

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You get the relationship you settle for.

By just saying

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25 years together saids a lot!

By JBaer

Maria Shriver files for divorce. Wow, what a shock.

By Bill

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She has no sense of humor.

By marcello ocello

Hey shmuck, why she doesn't have a sense of humor? she deserves every penny from that a--hole of arnold.

By Mary

What is that supposed to mean? What is so funny?

By wowode8

frtrtrtrt

By Carol

Once a pig, always a pig. And, they seem to gravitate to the same in the opposite sex. No self respect, no respect for others. Why these people get married I will never understand. They know they will never be faithful to one person, why promise they will. Liars all of them!!!!

By chartman

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do you really think we care what happens to maria shriver. she is a kennedy for goodness sake. don't you think arnold had good reason to look outside the home. i don't give a flip about arnold but i would bet since the kennedys think they are so above the law, etc. etc. i say if she wants her talk show she needs to live like normal people, worry how your next meal is going to be put on the table. we know this isn't going to happen. i feel no sympothy for either.

By joan

You appear to hate Maria Shriver because she is from the Kennedy clan. Too bad. What did she or the Kennedy family ever do to get slammed by you. She is still a human being who has lost most of her adult family and now her husband has cheated on her and their children.....disgusting. Money is not the issue, but the fact he used her and her family name to get into the political door. The Terminator should be terminated...big time.
By the way upper case letters should be used in starting a line and when the word i, I.

By IsisM

I'm glad she's divorcing the pig, but as Catholic and as Kennedy as she is, I kind of expected her to stay with him and continue taking more of the same...

I didn't think she would divorce him because of her strict Catholic upbringing. Rose never divorced Joe even though she knew what he was doing. Jackie never divorced JFK, either. I didn't think she would stay with him, but rather file for a legal separation instead and get on with her life. Then he would have eventually divorced her, which would have been acceptable.

Monday 11 July

By Funt

I agree, Shriver is a disgrace to Catholicism. Marriage is for life, and for her to abandon her family just because of a little bump in the road is disgraceful.

Thursday 07 July

By KittyAngel

I don't know about Catholics, but in my Bible it says that the one allowable reason for divorce is adultry. It's her perogative whether to try and work it out or not. I don't blame her for filing. He broke their marriage vows.

I didn't think Maria would file, but I am glad she did. Good for her!

By Angiebaby

I know Arnold is a randy old goat, and he did the unthinkable by having a kid with that eyesore of a maid, but does one really bad deed trump 25 years of happiness, building a partnership, raising great kids, enjoying a wide circle of friends and having a solid, loving, interesting extended family? I'm always sorry to see a marriage end and a family broken, especially ones that have endured for so long.

By isisreptiles

With a womanizer like Arnold, I'm sure there was a lot more than just the *one* bad deed, more like many that weren't publicized. And I have to wonder just how "happy" that marriage really was.

Even if she was to "overlook" this *one* thing, how could she ever even begin to trust him again? And a relationship without trust isn't worth having.

It is sad for a family to be broken up, but sometimes it's for the best. Just because a marriage has lasted for a long time doesn't mean it was a good marriage.

By Patrick

I think it is the humiliation of finding out that a woman who worked for the family, had a child that the family accepted and helped her to support was in fact a child that Arnold knew was his child that was being raised right under Maria's nose for all those years that made it impossible for her to stay with him. I would find forgiveness impossible for that fact alone. He should have told her the truth when the child was born, not let her find out years later. How humiliating is that? The maid knew, Arnold knew and Maria told years later. Ablsoutley unforgiveable.

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