Arnold Schwarzenegger Says Ex-Wife Maria Shriver ‘Flipped Out’ Over Him Running for Governor of California

usmagazine.com:

Not a fan. Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed that his time as the governor of California almost never came to be because of his now-ex-wife, Maria Shriver.“I was sitting with [Shriver] in a jacuzzi, and I said, ‘What do you think of me running for Governor?’ She flipped out,” the FUBAR actor, 75, told the cameras in his new three-part Netflix docuseries, Arnold, which premieres Wednesday, June 7. “I almost felt like she was hyperventilating.

She felt I have gone through this with my family. She had a very emotional reaction.”He noted that Shriver, 67, “hated the idea” of him running for office and recalled not wanting to go through with it unless “she was not 100 percent behind it.” Schwarzenegger said he “pulled back” from his ambitions after Shriver — with whom he shares kids Katherine, 33, Christina, 31, Patrick, 29, and Christopher, 25 — feared his campaign would drag their family “through the mud.”However, Shriver — who is the niece of former U.S.

President John F. Kennedy — changed her mind ahead of her then-husband’s appearance on a 2003 episode of The Tonight Show, during which he announced his bid for governor.“The morning of The Tonight Show, Maria put a note under my door that said, ‘In case you decide to run here’s what I would say and here’s if you decide not to run what I would say,’” the Terminator star shared. “I felt like Maria for the first time was open to the idea.”Schwarzenegger went on to beat incumbent Governor Gray Davis and was sworn into office in November 2003.

The True Lies actor held the position for eight years before leaving office in January 2011.In the documentary, Schwarzenegger also detailed how his marriage to Shriver was impacted by his affair with their longtime housekeeper, Mildred