Detailed Biography

Maria Owings Shriver is an award-winning American journalist and author, and the First Lady of California. She is married to actor and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and is a member of the Kennedy family.

Early life

Shriver was born in Chicago, Illinois. A Roman Catholic of German descent through her father and Irish American descent through her mother, she is the second child and only daughter of the politician Sargent Shriver and Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Eunice was the sister of United States President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy and five other siblings. Shriver attended Westland Middle School in Bethesda, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC, and graduated in 1973 from Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda. She received a bachelor of arts degree in American studies from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., in June 1977.

Career

In her book Ten Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Went Out Into The Real World , Shriver says that she became passionate about broadcast journalism after being sent to the back of the campaign plane with the press corps when volunteering for her father's 1972 U.S. vice-presidential race, calling these orders "the best thing that ever happened to me" After her journalism career began with KYW-TV in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she co-anchored the CBS Morning News with Forrest Sawyer from 1985 until 1987, co-anchored NBC News's Sunday Today and weekend editions of NBC Nightly News from 1987 until 1989, and was a contributing anchor on Dateline NBC from 1989 until 2004. In August 2003, Shriver took an unpaid leave of absence from NBC News when her husband became a candidate in the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election.

Upon her husband's November 17, 2003, inauguration as the 38th Governor of California, she became the First Lady of California. She then returned to reporting, making two more appearances for Dateline NBC.

On February 3, 2004, Shriver was told by NBC she was to be "relieved of duties at NBC News," citing the conflict of interest between her role as a journalist and her status as the First Lady of California and her increasing role as an advocate of her husband's administration.

She appeared as herself in the film Last Action Hero . She also played a minor role as herself in "Be Prepared", a 2006 episode of the television series That's So Raven promoting a "Preparedness Plan". On March 23, 2007, Shriver returned to television news as substitute host of panel-discussion talk show Larry King Live on CNN during which she moderated a discussion of breast cancer with Susan Love, musician Sheryl Crow and other guests.

Shriver announced that she will not return to news media after the excessive media coverage of the death of Anna Nicole Smith.

Personal life

In 1977, Tom Brokaw introduced Maria to Austrian bodybuilder and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger at a charity tennis tournament being held at her mother Eunice Kennedy Shriver's home. She married Schwarzenegger on April 26, 1986 in Hyannis, Massachusetts, at St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church. They have four children: Katherine Eunice Schwarzenegger ; Christina Maria Aurelia Schwarzenegger ; Patrick Arnold Shriver Schwarzenegger ; and Christopher Sargent Shriver Schwarzenegger

On Sundays, Shriver and her family attend Mass at St. Monica's Catholic Church in Santa Monica, California. The Schwarzeneggers live in their 11,000-square-foot home in Brentwood. They previously owned a home in the Pacific Palisades. The family owns vacation homes in Sun Valley, Idaho and Hyannis, Massachusetts.

The Saint John's Health Center has a nursery named after Shriver.

On April 7, 2008, it was revealed that Shriver's medical records were breached at the UCLA Medical Center.

First Lady of California

During her husband's tenure as the Governor of California, Shriver was initially tentative in her role as the Governor's wife. Some speculated that she felt that her husband would not attempt to gain the Governor's seat in the recall election that drove Gray Davis from office. When Arnold announced his candidacy on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, she supported his candidacy. Since Governor Schwarzenegger took office, Maria has continued to support her husband and has taken on several key initiatives as first lady—raising awareness of the contributions of women to the state, working on practical solutions to end cycles of poverty and encouraging all Californians to engage in acts of service to their communities. As her husband proposed a series of California ballot initiatives in November 2005, she decided to forgo any public support of her husband's proposals.

On February 3, 2008, Shriver endorsed Senator Barack Obama for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. The endorsement was given at a UCLA rally featuring her cousin Caroline Kennedy, Oprah Winfrey, Stevie Wonder and the candidate's spouse, Michelle Obama. Governor Schwarzenegger had previously endorsed Senator John McCain for the Republican presidential nomination a few days earlier on January 31, 2008.

Honors

A type of rose was named after Shriver in October 2004. The Maria Shriver rose has starchy-white blooms and a powerful citrus fragrance.

She has won Peabody and Emmy awards.

Books