Journalist Maria Shriver shared why she went to a convent following her divorce from actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Shriver appeared on the Feb. 6 episode of Hoda Kotb’s podcast, Making Space with Hoda Kotb, and explained she went to the convent “looking for advice.”
“I went to a convent, a cloistered convent, and to be in silence and look for advice,” she explained. “And the reverend mother there said to me at the very end … I actually have written about this but I — I haven’t shared it, but she said, ‘I think you came here looking for permission.’”
Shriver jokingly added that she felt like she “was in a scene out of “‘The Sound of Music.'”
She revealed she was rejected from joining the convent but that the nun encouraged her to “go out and become Maria.”
“She goes, ‘You can’t come live here … but you do have permission to go out and become Maria,’” she shared.
The advice ultimately left her in tears.
Get a sneak peek of the newest podcast episode of “Making Space with Hoda Kotb” where Maria Shriver talks about learning to embrace herself after the end of her marriage. https://t.co/7AvZJXUeP8 pic.twitter.com/gnVf5O5Qj2
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) February 6, 2023
“I had never given myself permission to — to feel, to be vulnerable, to be weak, to be brought to my knees. And the world did it to me. And then I was like, ‘OK, God, like let’s go,’” she explained.
She took it as a lesson to learn everything she could about her “role” and what she needed to learn.
“And so I gave myself permission to start learning,” she added.
In 2011, Shriver filed for divorce from Schwarzenegger after 25 years of marriage following the news he secretly had a child with one of the staff members who worked in the couple’s home.
Before their divorce, the couple announced in a joint statement they were “amicably separating.”
“We are continuing to parent our four children together. They are the light and the center of both of our lives. We consider this a private matter, and neither we nor any of our friends or family will have further comment,” they said.
They concluded their statement by asking “for compassion and respect from the media and the public.”