Patrick Schwarzenegger’s mom Maria Shriver makes tearful parenting revelation after complicated upbringing

Some months away from turning 70, Maria Shriver is focused on answering one question: “Who am I?”

In her lifetime, the TODAY contributor has been: member of a famous American dynasty, first lady of California, at the center of scandal because of her ex-husband Arnold Schwarzenegger, a journalist, an author, a mom, and much more.

Now, she is adding one more role to her list, that of poetry writer, through which she is reflecting on what it has been like to be all those things.

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Among her reflections were some on motherhood, which she discussed during an appearance on CBS Sunday Mornings on March 30.  

Speaking with Lee Cowan about her own mother, the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver — one of former President John F. Kennedy’s ten siblings and the founder of the Special Olympics — she said: “She was formidable, she was fierce, yet she grew up in a family where the men were the focus, and they were the first row, so to speak.”

As the CBS journalist noted that he got the sense Maria wasn’t seen “truthfully” by her mother, she admitted: “I think my mother, you know, was focused on her work. She was focused on her brothers.”

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She went on: “I have no doubt she loved me. I have no doubt she wanted to push me 24/7, and she did.”

Asked whether that “changed” the way she decided to be a mom, Maria, who shares Katherine, 35, Christina, 33, Patrick, 31, and Christopher, 27, with the Terminator actor, maintained: “Oh yeah, 100%,” adding: “My door was always open.”

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Then, tearfully, she added: “I just hope that my kids know that they were — makes me cry, but — you know, the priority of my life.”

Further speaking on her turn to poetry — her new poetry book, I Am Maria: My Reflections and Poems on Heartbreak, Healing, and Finding Your Way Home is out in April — Maria said: “I got separated and I found myself in my mid-50s thinking, like, okay, what do I do now? Uh, where am I going? Who am I? And I just sat down and looked out the window and started writing, and out it came.”

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Maria and Arnold, who married in 1986, split in 2011 after the latter’s affair with their nanny, Mildred Baena, came to light, and the fact that he had fathered a child with her, son Joseph Baena, who was born just days after his older half-brother Christopher; his mom did not disclose paternity details until he was about seven or eight years old. Their divorce was finalized in 2021. Watch Arnold speak on the affair in the video below.

Reflecting on her life now, Maria candidly shared: “Life hasn’t turned out exactly the way I thought. But I sit here today in love with my life, deeply grateful … I’m at peace. And I really spent a lot of years not at peace. Some people would say, who know me well, you’re not at peace. You’re restless and you’re driven and all that sort of stuff. But I’m, I’m really content with, my life and I’m proud of myself finally.”