Maria Shriver, the wife of actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, has filed for divorce, according to documents filed on Friday in superior court in Los Angeles.
Shriver, 55, cited “irreconcilable differences” with her husband, whom she met in 1977 and married in 1986.
Schwarzenegger, 63, admitted in May that he had fathered a child with the family’s long-time housekeeper, Mildred Baena, and announced the couple’s separation. The niece of former US President John F. Kennedy, Shriver has asked the court for joint custody of their two younger children — Patrick, 17, and Christopher, 13 — and payment of her legal fees and alimony.
The couple has two other children: Katherine, 21, and Christina, 19. “This has been a time of great personal and professional transition for each of us,” Schwarzenegger said in a May statement to the Los Angeles Times when he and Shriver announced their separation. “After a great deal of thought, reflection, discussion and prayer, we came to this decision together. At this time, we are living apart while we work on the future of our relationship,” the statement said. Schwarzenegger, a liberal Republican, left office in January, and has started to return to showbusiness, with plans for a “Governator” comic book and animated TV show.
He has also vowed to pursue his political passions — notably on the environment — fuelling rumours than he could even run to be the next President of the European Union. —AFP