Maria Shriver

Maria Owings Shriver (/ˈʃraɪvər/ SHRY-vər; born November 6, 1955) is an American journalist, author, a member of the prominent Shriver and Kennedy families, former First Lady of California, and the founder of the non-profit organization The Women's Alzheimer's Movement. She was married to actor and former Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom she had four children with, before separating in 2011 and divorcing in 2021.

Shriver began her journalism career at KYW-TV and briefly anchored the CBS Morning News before joining NBC News in 1986. After anchoring weekend editions of the Today show and the NBC Nightly News, she became a correspondent for Dateline NBC, also covering politics. After leaving NBC News in 2004 to focus on her role as First Lady of California, she returned in 2013 as a special anchor. For her reporting at NBC, Shriver received a Peabody Award in 1998 and was co-anchor for NBC's Emmy-winning coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics.

As executive producer of The Alzheimer's Project, Shriver earned two Emmy Awards and an Academy of Television Arts & Sciences award for developing a "television show with a conscience".

Shriver was born in Chicago, Illinois, on November 6, 1955, the second child of politician Sargent Shriver and activist Eunice Kennedy. She is a niece of the late U.S. president John F. Kennedy, U.S. attorney general and U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. senator Ted Kennedy, and six other siblings. A Roman Catholic, she is of mostly Irish and German descent.

Shriver spent her middle school years living in Paris save for a brief period when Shriver's family moved temporarily to Chicago in the summer of 1968 following Eunice Kennedy Shriver's work with the Special Olympics.

Shriver returned permanently from France to Bethesda, Maryland, in 1970, where she attended Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart high school and graduated in 1973, later attending Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York, for two years, then transferring for a Bachelor of Arts degree in American studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., graduating in June 1977.

Shriver is a fourth cousin of tennis player Pam Shriver.

In her book Ten Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Went Out Into The Real World (2000), Shriver says that she became passionate about broadcast journalism after being sent to the back of the campaign plane with the press corps while volunteering for her father's 1972 U.S. vice presidential race, calling these orders "the best thing that ever happened to me". After her journalism career began with KYW-TV in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she co-anchored The CBS Morning News with Forrest Sawyer from August 1985 until August 1986, co-anchored NBC News's Sunday Today from 1987 until 1990. Shriver also served as Saturday anchor 1989 & Sunday 1990 and contributing anchor 1996-1999 of NBC Nightly News. She was a contributing anchor on Dateline NBC from 1992 until 2004. In August 2003, Shriver took an unpaid leave of absence from NBC News when her husband became a candidate in the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election.