Arnold Schwarzenegger made a joke about his ex-wife, Maria Shriver, while honoring journalist Chris Wallace at his Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony on Thursday, September 18.
Schwarzenegger, 78, feted Wallace, 77, during Thursday’s event, describing him as a “fantastic journalist.”
“I know a lot about journalists. I’ve been interviewed — you can imagine, in my lifetime — by thousands and thousands of journalists,” he said. “But not only that, I was also married to a journalist.”
The Terminator actor went on to quip, “The only difference between Chris and Maria is that Chris has never taken half [of] my money,” which prompted chuckles from the audience.
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Schwarzenegger and Shriver, 69, were married for nearly 25 years and have four children together: Katherine, 35, Christina, 34, The White Lotus actor Patrick, 32, and Christopher, 27.
The couple tied the knot in April 1986 before separating in May 2011 amid reports of Schwarzenegger’s infidelity. Schwarzenegger later admitted to fathering a son, Joseph Baena, with the family’s former housekeeper Mildred “Patty” Baena. Their divorce was finalized in December 2021, a decade after their split.
According to a court filing obtained by Us Weekly in June 2022, as part of their settlement agreement, Shriver is entitled to half of Schwarzenegger’s earnings, including his pension, from the time they got married to when she filed for divorce.
In a May 2023 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Schwarzenegger said of his divorce, “It was my f***up. It was my failure.”
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Schwarzenegger said that despite their split, “She and I are really good friends and very close.”
“We are very proud of the way we raised our kids,” he added. “Even though we had this drama, we did Easter together, Mother’s Day together, the Christmases together, all birthdays — everything together.”
“If there’s Oscars for how to handle divorce, Maria and I should get it for having the least amount of impact on the kids,” the former governor of California said.
Shriver, meanwhile, opened up about her devastation over Schwarzenegger’s affair in her memoir I Am Maria, published in April.
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“I was consumed with grief and wracked with confusion, anger, fear, sadness and anxiety. I was unsure now of who I was, where I belonged. Honestly, it was brutal, and I was terrified,” Shriver wrote, noting that news of the affair broke soon after the deaths of both of her parents.
“As I sat on my hotel room floor in the dark, alone with tears streaming down my face, I thought to myself: Maria, this doesn’t have to be the end of you,” she added.
