Maria Shriver

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maria Shriver

Maria Owings Shriver (born November 6, 1955^[1] in Chicago, Illinois) is the wife of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the niece of the late President John F. Kennedy.

1 Biography
2 Career
3 Political Spouse
4 Guest Starred
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Biography

Shriver, a Roman Catholic, was the second child and only daughter of the politician Sargent Shriver and his wife Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the sister of President Kennedy. Shriver received a B.A. degree in American Studies from Georgetown University in June 1977. Later that year, Tom Brokaw introduced Maria to Austrian bodybuilder, actor and current Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, at a charity tennis tournament being held at Eunice Kennedy Shriver's home. Impressed by his passion for life, she married Schwarzenegger April 26, 1986.

They have four children:

Name	Birth	Notes
Katherine Eunice Schwarzenegger	December 13, 1989	Her middle name, Eunice, is the first name of her maternal grandmother.
Christina Aurelia Schwarzenegger	July 23, 1991	Her middle name, Aurelia, was the first name of her paternal grandmother.
Patrick Arnold Schwarznegger	September 18, 1993
Christopher Sargent Schwarzenegger	September 27, 1997	His middle name is the first name of his maternal grandfather.

[edit] Career

She was a Contributing Anchor on Dateline NBC from 1989 until 2004. In August of 2003, Shriver took an unpaid leave of absence from NBC News when her husband became a candidate in the 2003 California recall.

Upon her husband's inauguration as the 38th Governor of California, she became the First Lady of California on November 17, 2003. She then returned to reporting, making two more appearances for Dateline NBC. Her broadcast journalism career started with KYW-TV in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

On February 3, 2004, Shriver told NBC she wished to be "relieved of [her] 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. NBC News president Neal Shapiro did not refer to Shriver's decision as a resignation, however, and issued a statement calling Shriver's departure "an extended leave of absence."

[edit] Political Spouse

Candid shot of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and wife, Maria Shriver at Log Cabin Republican's "Courage To Lead" dinner in June of 2006.

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 abruptly on the Jay Leno show, she played the part of the loyal political spouse. Since Governor Schwarzenegger took office, Maria has visibly supported 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 forego any public support of her husband's proposals.

Prior to her work at NBC, Shriver had co-anchored the CBS Morning News. She has won Peabody and Emmy awards and is the author of five best-selling books: What's Heaven, Ten Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Went Out Into The Real World, What's Wrong with Timmy?, What's Happening to Grandpa? and And One More Thing Before You Go.