(L-R) Katherine Schwarzenegger, Christina Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Christopher Schwarzenegger. Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic/Getty Images
Maria Shriver learned a major sign of respect from her own mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
“I make them stand up [when I enter a room],” Maria, 69, said of her four kids when appearing on the Wednesday, January 8 episode of Hoda Kotb’s “Making Space” podcast. Maria shares Katherine, 35, Christina, 33, Patrick, 31, and Christopher, 27, with ex-husband Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“I used to make them. Now they just do stand up,” she said.
“There’s many things that I’ve emulated from my mother, but my grandmother and my mother were big on manners,” Maria continued of mother Eunice. “So, you know, when somebody who was older walked in the room — a.k.a. my mother — everybody stood up.”
Since Arnold Schwarzenegger burst on the scene in the 1980s, his family has gone on to become one of the most successful — and recognizable — clans in Hollywood. Three of the Terminator star’s five children have followed in his footsteps and made names for themselves in the entertainment industry: Katherine Schwarzenegger, a self-help and […]
When Maria became a mother, she decided to pass this along.
“I wanted my kids to, you know, when I walked in the room — or their dad walked in the room, or you would walk in the room — that they stand up out of respect,” she told Kotb. “I didn’t want to walk in the room, and they’d be sitting looking at a phone or watching the game.”
(L-R) Christina Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver, Patrick Schwarzenegger, and Katherine Schwarzenegger. Eric Charbonneau/Getty Images for Global Road
Maria admitted that her kids “moaned and groaned about it” at first but have since changed their tune.
“I’d be like, ‘I’m here. Here we are, and here I am. And look me in the eye, say hello, thank me for coming, write me a thank you note if I take you somewhere.’ That sort of stuff,” she explained. “They now say it was a good thing.”
Maria, along with her son Patrick, recently spoke with Us Weekly exclusively and emphasized the importance of family in their lives.
“Family continues to be super important, even as we get older,” Patrick told Us in September 2024. “It’s nice as we bring in new people, whether it’s my fiancée, [Abby Champion], or Katherine with her husband, [Chris Pratt], or so on and so forth. We always have other guests that come to the dinner.”
For nearly 25 years, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver were a Hollywood and political power couple. The Terminator star and the journalist tied the knot in April 1986, nearly nine years after they first met at a tennis tournament. After welcoming four children together, the pair announced their split in May 2011 amid reports of infidelity. (Schwarzenegger […]
Patrick explained that these dinners are an “open invite” for anyone to come.
“It’s just a nice way to get everyone together. The world is always moving so fast,” he added. “Everyone is so busy with kids and with work and traveling that it’s a nice moment throughout the week to settle down and have everyone be together.”
Of course, this was a tradition that Patrick learned from his mom.
“There’s a lot of research about families that eat together starting at a very young age do much better when it comes to saying no to drugs, no to alcohol, yes to being connected,” Maria told Us. “If you’re too busy during the week, at least that’s something you can count on.”