One of America’s most unlikely and riveting couples — Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Austrian body builder and movie star who became a Republican governor, and Maria Shriver, the journalist and member of the Kennedy dynasty — have separated.
Mr. Schwarzenegger and Ms. Shriver said in a statement Monday night that they were “amicably separating.” The separation came five months after Mr. Schwarzenegger finished his second term as governor of California and as people here were closely watching how the couple were adjusting to their new life. It was first reported by The Los Angeles Times.
Mr. Schwarzenegger had previously announced that he was returning to the movie business, but Ms. Shriver had not given any indication of what she would do next.
“This has been a time of great personal and professional transition for each of us,” they said in the statement. “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 couple said they would have no further comment on the separation and pleaded for privacy for them and their children.
The announcement suggested the end of what has been one of the more remarkable political unions, one that brought together a product of Hollywood and a member of one of the nation’s most celebrated political dynasties. Ms. Shriver, as a symbol of Democratic tradition and politics, gave Mr. Schwarzenegger a political legitimacy that proved critical in a recall election in which he ousted a Democratic governor, Grey Davis.
Mr. Schwarzenegger might never have been elected were it not for his wife: Ms. Shriver gave a passionate speech on behalf of her husband in the final days of his campaign for governor after The Los Angeles Times published a series of stories painting him as womanizer and groper.
Willie Brown, the former Assembly speaker, said Ms. Shriver, who was forced to give up her career as an NBC television correspondent after her husband became governor, told Newsweek recently, “Maria has been much more of a benefit to Arnold than Arnold has been to Maria.”
The couple, who lived in a gated estate in Brentwood off Sunset Boulevard, have been married for 25 years.
The separation came at a particularly difficult time for Ms. Shriver, who in recent years has lost her mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, her father, Sargent Shriver, and her uncle, Edward M. Kennedy, the former senator.
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