“Grew Up Feeling Invisible”: President Kennedy’s Niece Maria Shriver Likens Life With Arnold Schwarzenegger to Childhood in Fame Filled Family

All that glitters is not gold. While being married to Arnold Schwarzenegger might seem like a fairytale, life, for ex-wife Maria Shriver, was not that easy. Not only is Schwarzenegger renowned and respected in the bodybuilding community, he’s also a famous actor. For people watching him on the screen, his fame is exciting and entertaining. However, for Shriver, who was a part of his personal life, it felt like being lost in his shadow.

Maria Shriver, Schwarzenegger’s ex-wife, has recently come forward to express how invisible she felt when she was married to Arnold Schwarzenegger. While we might not relate to that, her life story speaks volumes.

Maria Shriver Felt Invisible While Being Married to Arnold Schwarzenegger

As a member of the Kennedy family, arguably one of the most famous political families out there, feeling insignificant was no stretch for Shriver. According to the latest episode of the podcast Making Space with Hoda Kotb, Shriver said, “I grew up feeling invisible in an incredibly public, famous family. There were a lot of really big characters in that family.”

Read more: “It Was Me That Screwed Up”- Arnold Schwarzenegger Once Regretted His Divorce With Maria Shriver, Took All the Blame on Himself

Sadly, that was not the last time Shriver battled these feelings. While Maria Shriver was an accomplished journalist in her own right, that’s not what people recognized her for. She was the superstar Schwarzenegger’s wife, which largely became her identifier.  Shriver revealed that she struggled with feelings of invisibility due to her then-husband’s fame.

Shriver and Schwarzenegger dated for nearly a decade before finally tying the knot in 1986. During this time, both of them were growing in their careers, Shriver in journalism and Schwarzenegger in Hollywood. Their wedding was a sensational affair. However, they separated in 2011 and finalized their divorce in 2021.

Lost in Fame Since Childhood

Maria Shriver is the is the niece of the late President John F. Kennedy. Being in the public eye was not novel for her, but was anyone looking? She reminisced, “If you, as a child, are standing next to the president of the United States, two U.S. senators, the first lady, nobody is looking at you. You are background noise. And you take that with you really through life, and you end up putting yourself in situations where that continues until you learn your lesson.”

That feeling of being trivial also bled into her life with Arnold Schwarzenegger. She admitted that she felt angry when people came up and failed to acknowledge her when she was standing right next to Schwarzenegger. Self-doubt was a predictable consequence of this invisibility and she wondered, “Do I see me? Am I invisible to me?”

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However, the Emmy-winning journalist has now embarked on a journey to find herself. What do you think of her latest revelations?