Maria Shriver

Maria Shriver was born in Chicago, Illinois, and is the daughter of Sargent Shriver and Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Her mother founded the Special Olympics, while her father was the founding director of the Peace Corps. Through Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Maria is a niece of President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Ted Kennedy.

Shriver married actor Arnold Schwarzenegger on April 26, 1986. They have four children, Katherine, Christina, Patrick, and Christopher. The couple announced their separation in 2011, and their divorce was finalized in 2021.

Shriver began her broadcast journalism career at KYW-TV in Philadelphia after graduating from Georgetown University in 1977. She later worked as a writer and producer for Evening Magazine in Baltimore before becoming a national correspondent for CBS. She co-anchored CBS Morning News with Forrest Sawyer from 1985 to 1986.

In 1986, Shriver joined NBC News, where she worked as a correspondent and anchored the young-adult newsmagazine Main Street. She co-anchored the Sunday edition of Today from 1987 to 1990 and contributed to NBC Nightly News. She was a correspondent for Dateline NBC from 1992 to 2004, covering news and politics.

Shriver left NBC News after Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor of California, citing the conflict between her journalism and her role as First Lady. She returned to NBC as a special anchor in 2013 and later co-anchored Today with Matt Lauer. Her television journalism earned a Peabody Award, and she was a co-anchor for NBC's Emmy-winning coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics.

Shriver served as First Lady of California from 2003 to 2011 during Schwarzenegger's governorship. She led the California Governor and First Lady's Conference on Women, which grew into a major forum for women and drew more than 30,000 attendees and 150 world leaders in 2010. In 2004, she created the Minerva Awards to honor California women whose work had changed their communities and the wider world.

Her WE Connect program linked working families with public benefits, job assistance, foreclosure support, tax preparation, and other services. The initiative also provided more than two million healthy meals to families in need. Through WE Invest and a partnership with Kiva, hundreds of women entrepreneurs in the United States received more than one million dollars in microloans.

Shriver promoted service and volunteerism through CaliforniaVolunteers and helped establish a statewide volunteer-matching network. She also created the California Hall of Fame in 2006 and worked with the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts. Her other initiatives included WE Prepare, WE Build, and WE Garden.

After Sargent Shriver was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2003, Maria Shriver became an advocate for Alzheimer's research, patient care, and family support. She founded the Women's Alzheimer's Movement, a global alliance focused on understanding why women are disproportionately affected by the disease and on advancing women-centered research.

Shriver was the executive producer of The Alzheimer's Project, a four-part HBO documentary series that examined patients, families, and research laboratories. The project earned two Emmy Awards and an Academy of Television Arts & Sciences award. She also published What's Happening to Grandpa? and the 2016 coloring book Color Your Mind for people affected by Alzheimer's.

Shriver has written books for adults and children, including Ten Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Went Out Into The Real World, Just Who Will You Be?, and I've Been Thinking...: Reflections, Prayers, and Meditations for a Meaningful Life. The 2018 book became a number-one New York Times bestseller, and she released a companion journal in 2019.

As a producer and actress, Shriver appeared as herself in Last Action Hero and in an episode of That's So Raven. She was an executive producer of Still Alice and co-executive producer of the documentary Take Your Pills with her daughter Christina Schwarzenegger. Her 2025 book is titled I Am Maria: My Reflections and Poems on Heartbreak, Healing, and Finding Your Way Home.