Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver divorced after 35 years, 8 months of marriage. The settlement was reportedly an estimated $250M. Details inside.
Figures are reported estimates. Last updated Oct 2026.
Took 10 years to finalize after revelations of Schwarzenegger's secret child.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Austrian-born bodybuilder who became a Hollywood superstar and then Governor of California, married Maria Shriver, a journalist and member of the Kennedy family, on 26 April 1986 in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Shriver, the niece of President John F. Kennedy and an award-winning NBC News broadcaster, brought political pedigree to a marriage that was a defining Hollywood-meets-Washington pairing. They had four children, Katherine, Christina, Patrick and Christopher, and Katherine later married the actor Chris Pratt.
Schwarzenegger's wealth was built in several stages. After winning Mr. Olympia seven times, he made his first money in the 1970s from bodybuilding businesses and real estate, then became a film star with Conan the Barbarian (1982) and The Terminator (1984), and one of the highest-paid actors in the world with Terminator 2 (1991). His political career from 2003 to 2011 as governor of California paid a far smaller salary but expanded his profile. Shriver built a separate career as a journalist, author and later an advocate for Alzheimer's research. No reliable figure exists for their combined fortune.
The couple met in 1977 and married in 1986. After 25 years together, the marriage collapsed in 2011, shortly after Schwarzenegger left the governorship and acknowledged that he had fathered a son, born in 1997, with a member of the household staff. Shriver filed for divorce in July 2011. Surprisingly little happened publicly for a decade, and the divorce was not finalized until 28 December 2021, when a Los Angeles judge signed the judgment, ten years after the filing.
The financial terms are confidential, and no settlement figure has been disclosed. The judgment confirmed only a few things: neither spouse owes the other spousal support, although both reserved the right to seek it in the future, and there were no custody or child support provisions because all four children were adults. Figures that circulate for this case are estimates of the couple's wealth divided in half, not reported court terms, and should be treated with caution.
Since the amount is undisclosed, the more useful question is why the process took so long. California's community property rules would normally have produced a clear, equal division of marital assets, and a 25-year marriage left little to argue about on that point. News reports noted that it was unclear why the case dragged on, with only a handful of public filings between 2011 and a renewed push in 2021, and the quiet, private handling of the case suggests that both sides preferred to avoid publicity.
The divorce had no visible effect on Schwarzenegger's business interests, and he returned to acting after leaving office. Shriver continued her media work, including her Sunday Paper newsletter, and founded the Women's Alzheimer's Movement. Neither side commented publicly on why the final judgment took so long.
The Schwarzenegger and Shriver divorce cannot be ranked by value, but it is one of the longest on record, taking ten years from filing to judgment. It is comparable in length to the Pitt and Jolie case, which took about eight years, though that case was accompanied by an open business dispute. By contrast, Mel Gibson's divorce was concluded within about two and a half years of filing.
The couple's eldest daughter, Katherine Schwarzenegger, is married to the actor Chris Pratt, who was himself divorced from Anna Faris in 2018. The divorce was handled without public accusations from either side, an unusually restrained response to a scandal that otherwise dominated tabloid coverage in 2011. The couple had been married for 25 years when the secret child became public, and the 2021 judgment closed a file that had stayed open for a decade.
Maria Shriver's reported settlement was about $250 million.
They married in 1986 and divorced in 2021, a marriage of roughly 35 years.
No prenuptial agreement was reported.
Yes, the family is reported to include 4 children.
Reported assets include: Brentwood estate, real estate portfolio, film royalties.
Since the amount is undisclosed, the more useful question is why the process took so long. California's community property rules would normally have produced a clear, equal division of marital assets, and a 25-year marriage left little to argue about on that point.
* Settlement terms were not publicly disclosed. This figure is an estimate.