Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver: Behind The Split

Behind The Split

It was a shock to the outside world Monday night when Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver announced their separation after 34 years together, 25 of them as husband and wife.

Marriages are, by definition, fraught with tensions and complications--and theirs was no different. Never mind that they were California's golden couple: he an Austrian body builder turned American movie star, she a glamorous member of the Kennedy clan. They had been through a lot together--the untimely deaths of various Kennedy cousins in terrible accidents and a drug overdose, his open-heart surgery to replace a defective aortic valve, the death of his mother, the death of her mother, the constant intrusion of the tabloids and paparazzi, and the natural friction of two high-powered careers.

Popular in the Community

Close

HuffPost Shopping’s Best Finds

MORE IN LIFE