Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver are finally divorced. I genuinely thought this happened years ago, but no, this was a decade-long divorce proceeding, done with a private judge, and everything was finalized this week. They got married in 1986, and all of their kids are adults. While there were some bad feelings initially, Arnold and Maria have actually been pretty close this whole time, and they’re often together for holidays and family celebrations.
It may be the most drawn-out divorce in Hollywood history — but after 10 1/2 years, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver are single again. It went down Tuesday morning in L.A. Superior Court … TMZ has learned. The divorce had been mediated by a private judge and that judge signed off on the divorce earlier this month, but it needed to be entered into the court system by a sitting judge, which happened this morning.
As for why this divorce took so long, it’s a combination of lack of motivation and a very complicated property settlement agreement. As we reported, both Arnold and Maria moved on years ago … they both have been in relationships but stayed cordial with each other … and often had family gatherings with their 4 kids.
The rupture in the marriage occurred more than a decade ago, when news leaked that Arnold had fathered a child with the family’s housekeeper. That child — now an adult — Joseph Baena, is now a college grad with acting ambitions, and he has a leg up because he’s the spitting image of his dad.
As for the property settlement … well, it’s all confidential. But, we know there was a ton of money — an estimated $400 million — and our sources say things pretty much got divided down the middle. There was no prenup.
Arnold and Maria were married in 1986, so it was a long run. As for the divorce, Laura Wasser repped Maria, while Kristina Royce repped the former Guv.
While Schwarzenegger was more of the breadwinner in their marriage, Maria always had her own money, she made her own money, and she had a career as she was raising their kids. I think the 50-50 split in assets sounds very fair. I also think Arnold probably still loves her and kind of wishes they were still married. I have nothing to back that up, it’s just an assumption on my part. He loved being “married to a Kennedy,” even if he was unfaithful to her throughout.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
Damn! My eyes water for the legal bill.
Question: If you have lawyers that have agreed to a specific amount as a retainer do you have to pay them anything extra or it doesnt matter what trouble you run into,thats the agreed fees?
Think of the retainer as a large down payment. The law firm needs to know that they’ll be paid, so they bill against that until more funds are needed. For some clients there isn’t even a retainer – they just bill you monthly. I’m guessing that was the case for these 2 clients.
Typically you do have a budget you agree to, but there is the understanding that it’s a wild guess since litigation often swerves and pivots. You can pay more than originally budgeted, or sometimes things end suddenly, when one side suddenly decides to settle, or you win on summary judgment. (Ask Daily Fail!)
You’re describing an advance fee which is different from a retainer. It’s a common misunderstanding. But a retainer is separate from fees for legal work performed.
No the retainer is separate and apart from whatever costs & fees are associated with an actual legal matter tht the lawyer is called on to deal with. Hvng a lawyer “on retainer” simply means hvng a lawyer on call which is why retainer fees are usually nominal.
A retainer is just money that formally seals the attorney-client relationship so as to prevent that attorney from taking adverse representation. An attorney can charge a flat fee or an hourly rate (or in cases like personal injury, contingency). In this case, I’m betting these attorneys charged an hourly rate that Maria and Arnold were paying monthly.
They also could have used a mediator. I used that for mine, and there are A LOT (lol) of great mediator services where they even have a psychologist as part of the team. The funny part is they said my husband was still the hardest person they ever had to deal with.
Geez 10 years? I get that asset dividing takes time, especially when you’re rich and have lots of them and you have been married a long time but still, does that really take a decade?!?! Apparently so. Unless one of them just didn’t want the marriage to end so used assets to drag out the process longer. Will be surprised if it’s that as both Maria and Arnold have dated after their separation.
Maria is Catholic, some Catholics never divorce, they have separate lives.
Arnold is also Catholic. Early on when they first split, I recall hearing that they did go to marriage counseling as Maria is reportedly very devout and wanted to avoid divorce from a religious standpoint. Apparently the counseling didn’t work out…The entire situation with Arnold having a child with the maid and sleeping with her in Maria and Arnold’s bed had to beyond humiliating for Maria. And let’s not forget that she defended Arnold for years against the numerous allegations of his womanizing, groping and sexual harassment on movie sets. All things considered Arnold is lucky that Maria didn’t turn him from a stallion into a gelding!
Both have moved on and it’s good for their kids that they can get together for holidays and family occasions. And to his credit, Arnold has forged a close relationship with Joseph Baena who seems like a nice young man.
She was so classy with this split. I don’t know how she did it so kudos to her.
She’s a Kennedy: they’ve seen worst
Maybe coming from a very rich and old money background, she was better prepared and protected for this kind of situation.
Well, and her particular very rich and old money background is full of men who were both unfaithful to their wives and did so in public, embarrassing ways. It’s maybe not a healthy thing to know too much about.
If you love your wife and want to stay married to her don’t cheat and don’t grope other women. I honestly thought their divorce was final years ago.
Yeah so weird how the Gropenator stories all got shut down, some of them about girls, not all of age. Some men seem impervious.
As did I! I was actually surprised when I read the headline. I actually agree with Kaiser that Arnold probably still wishes he was married to Maria, given that was his goal since he was young. But no, he couldn’t keep little Arnold in his cage. What a cliche he is!
Speaking of divorces, Bethanny Frankel is finally divorced from a two year marriage and I think a 9-10 year divorce. Her ex is an absolute whacko!!
How do you know her ex is the wacko? He isn’ t the one who has been married and engaged a bunch of times. You only know what Bethany said. He has never said anything publicly about her.
I honestly believe that if a husband or a wife cheats on their spouse he or she should lose everything and walk empty handed out of the marriage. People would think twice about cheating if a law like that existed. So Arnold should lose everything.
Oh, wow.
WTF? Marriage is a contract, not a life sentence.
You would have people falsifying photos/emails/etc saying the other cheated when they haven’t just so they get all the money. No-fault works best when it comes divvying up money and property, takes the emotion out of it. Usually.
Sure. While we’re at it, why not just bring back stoning as a penalty for adultery, and just go the full nine yards on this? /s
Seriously. I get that relationships are often not easy and infidelity is even harder, but given what a shitshow divorces can be already, the idea of trying to make it even more complicated is just astonishing.
People wouldn’t think twice about cheating, they’d still cheat but imagine what would happen to the children. If one parent doesn’t have the resources to support them they would lose ALL custody. People cheat for various reasons — some aren’t so cut and dried as merely wanting a little on the side, and to deprive one parent from even partial custody due to lack of support is just cruel.
These decade long divorces are a bit ridiculous. I suspect that it’s partly due to norms around what is considered adultery changing and people being more willing to be separated for extended periods of time (not that Arnold ever cared about that, but I wonder if 20 years ago Maria might have wanted to be free of him sooner).
Kind of surprised at this. You would think at this point they would have just stayed legally married and lived separately. And no I don’t think the holdup was over the financial settlement. Makes me wonder if 1 one of them wants to get married again..
Aw man Diana, everything you wrote is exactly what I was thinking! I figured they weren’t super motivated to get divorced and they’d just stay separated forever. I wonder, same as you, whether one of them wants to remarry or if there was another motivating factor for finally getting divorced.
Could be Covid related. If she is unable to make medical decisions for herself, her legal husband has the say regarding what treatment she receives. Obviously not a good situation. Divorce means she can choose her own representative for health care decisions.
People have commented that Maria didn’t want divorce because she’s Catholic, but you can be a divorced Catholic, you just can’t be a remarried one.
At this point – since they seem to have been getting along relatively well – I’d imagine they’re starting to think about getting things settled so that if one of them passes away they don’t leave a mess behind.
while he was a pretty bad governor, he did speak out against Trump and I wanted so much to be able to forget the things I’ve heard.
But basically “everyone” knew and he still got elected so it always seemed no one cared. It’s weird that those stories never surfaced again in Me Too era, but maybe it’s not. They all got shut down so quickly when he was running.
Is Angie and useless fella divorce finalized? I can’t imagine going through 10 years of proceedings with that deadbeat.
Yes, Angie and Brad are legally single people, still to be settle, children’s custody and financials.
the kids dont need much custody now-they are all teen agers
I do like that Arnold has ended up staying with the same girlfriend for years now. Although, I bet he cheats. But she is a woman of substance, a long career, and in her mid 40s. Of course, he’s still much older than her. But she is a mature woman, not a woman-child.
She’s a physical therapist, and still is. I looked at her Instagram and the website of her business. I mean, maybe Arnold invested in it. In fact, probably did. I don’t know. But she’s not the typical trophy girlfriend a lot of older famous men are with. So I give Arnold that. I agree, though. I think he will always have great love for Maria. I wonder how she feels about him. She knew he was a cheater, but their longtime maid and fathering a child, and the maid still being employed all of those years? Ugh. It’s nice she’s had a long relationship herself.
On the website: Heather Milligan is the founder and President of Elite OrthoSport Physical Therapy & Performance. With over 20 years of experience in the field, in addition to her degree in Physical Therapy, she holds her Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Heather currently maintains three highly regarded certifications, placing her in an elite class of physical therapists in the country.
Here’s the rest on her.
https://www.eliteorthosport.com/aboutus
Now I get why Maria wrote on Twitter about living in the present and taking a break from social media three days before this hit the news. She is happy this is over & wanted to avoid the shitstorm of comments people would live on her social. She is smart getting ahead of the news cycle🤭👍
I agree that Arnold probably has major regrets and Maria probably still loves him, too, but she just could not accept the humiliating public betrayal. Don’t forget that their youngest son is just about the same age as the child he fathered with his girlfriend. I’ve heard Maria in interviews and on her podcasts and while she doesn’t directly address what happened, she has clearly not loved being single.
Uhmm, my bad, I thought they were divorced already. I’m reminded now that Arnold may be the inspiration for the East Coast? tanning mom or character in There’s Something about Mary.
I wouldn’t be suprised if Maria & Arnold genuinely get along now. Don’t why, just think that.