Maria Shriver is an award-winning journalist, author, Alzheimer’s disease research advocate, and entrepreneur. However, she recently recalled that when she was younger, she often felt “invisible” to be part of such a famous family.
On October 26th, Shriver was a featured speaker at the Today Making Space Wellness Weekend with Hoda Kotb hosted by Miraval Resort & Spa. She talked about how she and her best friend Hoda were able to find meaning in life.
“When you grow up in a highly competitive and famous family, you can either be integrated into that family or have to leave it,” the TODAY contributor reflected.
She ended up making the latter choice in several different ways. He physically left his East Coast roots when he moved to Los Angeles and became professionally independent when he pursued journalism rather than politics.
“Looking back, I think I was doing it to find my air, to find my breathing, to actually find my way,” Shriver said. It was a difficult situation for her parents, Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Robert Sargent Shriver Jr., who added that they knew their choices were often wrong.
“But I knew I couldn’t stay here and make a living,” she continued. “I knew I couldn’t stay here, and… if I was just following this predetermined path of my family, I wanted to be myself and find out why I was here.” And that was always my desire, my quest: Why am I here? How am I different from this group of people?
Hoda Kotb and Maria Shriver at Today’s Making Space Wellness Weekend. Dana Samuel / Dana Samuel
Shriver said such questions first occurred to her when she was growing up and “mixed up with everyone else.”
“It was like, ‘Which Kennedy are you? You’ve got hair, you’ve got teeth, you’re just one of all these people.'” It was funny, but really It was sad because it robbed me of my humanity and I never felt like I was Maria. ”
“So I think my whole drive was like, ‘Who is Maria?'” Talking to people, interviewing people, and in some ways interviewing myself was a journey to answer that question. ” she added.
Being part of a famous family and being married to a movie star means that Katherine Schwarzenegger (34), Christina Schwarzenegger (33), Patrick Schwarzenegger (31), Christopher It was a powerful lesson for raising Schwarzenegger, 27, of his own four children.
“It was really important to me to raise my children who felt like they were a priority in a public family,” Shriver said. “I wanted to protect their privacy, that they weren’t part of a political pamphlet, that they weren’t being used as props, that they were the stars of our house, and that they I wanted to make sure that their mothers and fathers felt that they were valued and that they felt equally important, not just as four different individuals, but as a collective. It showed that they were also family. ”
“Regardless of what their father did, what I did, what kind of family they came from, what they were doing mattered, and it still matters… It’s something that we take very seriously — to make sure that kids feel like whatever they’re doing doesn’t overshadow what their parents are doing, and that’s something that continues. It’s a great initiative.”
As part of today’s Making Space Wellness Weekend with Hoda Kotb, Shriver, 68, also spoke to the intimate crowd about the importance of maintaining a sense of purpose as you age. This is what she discusses in her new book, “I Am Maria.” Released in April 2025.
“I think we’re all here to change society, to change culture, and we do that in the way we live our lives, in the way we use our voices, in the way we conduct ourselves,” Shriver told the audience. . “The only way to redefine aging is to redefine what it means to be a woman in your 60s, what it means to be a mother, what it means to be a professional, and what it means to live a meaningful life. Just do it.”
