Maria Shriver wants to make one thing clear about her son Patrick Schwarzenegger and his character on The White Lotus season 3, Saxon Ratliff.
“Patrick is not like Saxton. I just want to clear that up ‘cause people say, ‘Is Patrick like Saxton?’” Shriver, 69, shared on the Tuesday, April 1, episode of Today. “I’m like, ‘Do you think I would’ve raised a Saxton?’”
Patrick, 31, is the third eldest of Shriver’s four children — she is also mother of Katherine, 35, Christina, 33, and Christopher, 27 — with her ex-husband, Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Arnold, 77, also shares his son Joseph, 27, with Mildred Patricia Baena.)
On Tuesday, Shriver gushed that she’s “really happy” for Patrick ahead of the HBO dramedy’s season 3 finale on Sunday, April 6. “He’s worked so hard. He’s taken acting classes. He gets rejected a lot, and this is finally the role of his life and he’s having a great time with it,” she said. “And everybody wants to talk to me about it, so I’m so happy for him.”
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Shriver even joked that wants to change the name of her new book, I Am Maria, to I Am Patrick’s Mom because “all anybody wants to talk to me about is Saxton.”
Patrick’s White Lotus character has made waves since the season premiered on February 16, from participating in incestuous sexual acts with his brother, Lochlan (Sam Nivola), to going full frontal in the season’s first episode to just being a spoiled rich kid.
“I did know that was coming,” Shriver told Savannah Guthrie of her son’s nude scene. “He kind of warned me, but not really warned me. But that’s between me and Patrick.”
In addition to hoping that Saxton is not revealed to be the dead body shown at the beginning of the show — and denying that she knows show spoilers — Shriver revealed that she “changed my whole book tour to be home watching the finale with him.” Patrick, however, won’t actually be able to make it.
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“He told me he has to work, so I’m gonna have my viewing party without Saxton,” she quipped.
Patrick, for his part, previously stated that he didn’t want to watch the season’s final episodes with his family. “I think some upcoming episodes I’m going to watch without them,” he teased on The Drew Barrymore Show last month. “[I] would definitely take a bathroom break [if things get too awkward]. The next episodes, they’re crazy.”
Shriver has been her son’s biggest fan throughout his White Lotus experience, as she and Arnold each supported Patrick at the show’s Los Angeles red carpet premiere on February 10. Patrick also shared his mom and sister Katherine’s sweet reaction to his casting news via Instagram.
“You got it!” Shriver exclaimed in an Instagram video of the moment Patrick shared on February 16. She shed tears as she embraced her son for a hug, causing both him and Katherine to cry.
“My whole family are huge fans of the show, and would always mess with me saying I needed to find a way to get onto this show,” Patrick wrote alongside the heartfelt clip. “Anyways it’s a special moment when you get to celebrate with people you love. It was one of those dream come true moments for me.”
The season 3 finale of The White Lotus airs on HBO Sunday, April 6, at 9 p.m. ET.
