Katherine Schwarzenegger, the eldest of four children of former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his estranged wife Maria Shriver, opens up about her parents’ divorce in this month’s issue of Harper’s Bazaar.
Schwarzenegger, 21, discussed her relationship with her parents, explaining that she’s closer to her mother than to her father. “I’ve always been way closer to my mom,” she said. “I talk to my mom about six times a day, and we constantly email in between that.”
“I’m close to my dad, but they’re totally different kinds of relationships,” she added.
Schwarzenegger, a college student at the University of Southern California and the author of the New York Times bestseller “Rock What You’ve Got,” is the first of the Schwarzenegger clan to speak publicly about the high-profile divorce. (RELATED: Patrick Schwarzenegger: ‘All will be okay’ despite parents Arnold and Maria Shriver’s split)
She told Harper’s that she was shielded from most of her family’s stresses and media attention during her childhood. But she’s managing it now through a combination of retail therapy and music.
“I’m obsessed with Adele. It’s the best emotional music,” she said when one of her songs began to play during the interview. “These past two months, I’m like, ‘Bring it on, Adele.’ ”
Her personal beliefs are also keeping her grounded during the family drama. “I … like to think God doesn’t really give you anything you can’t handle,” she explained.
Shriver separated from Arnold Schwarzenegger in May after 25 years of marriage, following the revelation that he had fathered an illegitimate child with the couple’s then-housekeeper. California’s former first lady filed for divorce on July 1, citing irreconcilable differences.
Sources have reported that the divorce is proceeding amicably, although the former governor was criticized over the weekend for wearing a t-shirt that read “I survived Maria.”