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(L to L) Katherine Schwarzenegger, Christina Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Christopher Schwarzenegger.
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic/Getty ImagesMaria Shriver having learned a great sign of respect from her own mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
“I make them stand up (when I enter a room),” Maria, 69, said of her four children while appearing on the Wednesday, January 8 episode of Hoda Kotb‘s “Making Space” Podcast.. Maria shares Katherine, 35, Christina, 33, Patrick, 31, and Christopher, 27, with ex-husband Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“I used to make them. Now they just stand up,” he said.
“There are many things that I have imitated from my mother, but my grandmother and my mother were very moral,” continued Maria of her mother Eunice. “So, you know, when someone who was older walked in the room – which was my mother – everyone stood up.”
Since Arnold Schwarzenegger came to the fore in the 1980s, his family has gone on to become one of the most successful – and recognizable – clans in Hollywood. Three of the Terminator star’s five children have followed in his footsteps and made names for themselves in the entertainment industry: Katherine Schwarzenegger, a self-help girl and (…)
When Maria became a mother, she decided to pass this on.
“I wanted my kids, you know, when I walked in the room — or when their dad walked in the room, or you’d walk in the room — that they stood out of respect,” she told Kotb. “I didn’t want to walk in the room, and they’d be sitting looking at a phone or watching the game.”
(L to L) Christina Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver, Patrick Schwarzenegger, and Katherine Schwarzenegger.
Eric Charbonneau/Getty Images for Global RoadMaria admitted that her children were “complaining and moaning” at first but have since changed their tune.
“I’d be like, ‘I’m here. Here we are, and here I am. And look me in the eye, say hello, thank me for coming, write me a thank you note if I take you somewhere.’ That kind of stuff,” she explained. “They now say it’s a good thing.”
Maria, together with her son Patrick, recently spoke with Us Weekly only and emphasized the importance of family in their lives.
“Family continues to be extremely important, even as we get older,” Patrick told us in September 2024. “It’s nice as we bring new people in, whether it’s my fiancé , (Abby’s Champion)or Katherine with her husband, (Chris Pratt)or so on and so forth. We always have other guests who come to dinner.”
For nearly 25 years, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver were a Hollywood and political power couple. The Terminator star and the journalist tied the knot in April 1986, almost nine years after they first met at a tennis tournament. After welcoming four children together, the pair announced their split in May 2011 following reports of infidelity. (Schwarzenegger (…)
Patrick explained that these dinners are an “open invitation” for anyone to come.
“It’s a nice way to get everyone together. The world is always moving so fast,” he added. “Everyone is so busy with children and with work and travel that it’s a nice moment throughout the week to settle down and get everyone together.”
Of course, this was a tradition that Patrick learned from his mother.
“There is a lot of research about families that eat together starting at a very young age doing much better in terms of saying no to drugs, no to alcohol, yes to being connected,” says Maria Us. “If you’re too busy during the week, at least that’s something you can count on.”
