'It was brutal, and I was terrified': Maria Shriver opens up about Arnold Schwarzenegger divorce in new book

Maria Shriver has opened up about her "brutal" divorce from Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Shriver was married to the actor and former Governor of California from 1989 to 2021.

She filed for divorce in 2011.

In an excerpt from her new poetry book, I Am Maria, obtained by People, Shriver said the end of her 25-year marriage was a "devastating, life-altering blow".

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"My twenty-five-year-long marriage blew up. It broke my heart, it broke my spirit, it broke what was left of me," she wrote.

Shriver explained how her marriage was another hit after losing both her parents and finishing up her eight years as the First Lady of California.

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"Without my marriage, my parents, a job – the dam of my lifelong capital-D Denial just blew apart," she admitted.

The star said she was "consumed with grief and wracked with confusion, anger, fear, sadness, and anxiety."

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"I was unsure now of who I was, where I belonged. Honestly, it was brutal, and I was terrified."

The former couple share four children together: sons Patrick and Christopher, and daughters Katherine and Christina.

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Shriver acknowledged her children's "grace, valor, and courage my children" amid their parents' divorce.

"We are continuing to parent our four children together. They are the light and center of both of our lives," Shriver and Schwarzenegger wrote in a joint statement at the time.

Shriver cited "irreconcilable differences" when she filed for divorce.

The couple split in 2011 after news Schwarzenegger has fathered a son from an affair with their housekeeper.

Shriver's poetry book comes out April 1, 2025.

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