Maria Shriver says Hoda taught her this parenting lesson as a Kennedy

Maria Shriver has established herself as an award-winning journalist, writer, Alzheimer’s Research Advocate and entrepreneur. But when she was little, she often felt “invisible” being part of such a famous family, she recalled recently.

Shriver was a featured speaker at TODAY Hosts Space Wellness Weekend with Hoda Kotbsponsored by Miraval Resorts & Spas, October 26th. She joined Hoda, a close friend, to talk about how she found meaning in her life.

“Growing up in a very competitive, famous family, you can either be consumed by it or you have to leave,” the TODAY writer muses.

She ultimately made the latter choice in several different ways: physically leaving her East Coast roots when she moved to Los Angeles, and separating professionally when she entered journalism rather than politics.

“When I look back, I think I did it to find my own air, to find my own breath, to find my own path, really,” Shriver said, adding that she knows her choice was often unfaithful. difficult for her parents, Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Robert Sargent Shriver Jr.

“But I knew I couldn’t stay and survive,” she continued. “I knew I couldn’t stay and…become myself and understand why I was here if I just followed this predetermined path of my family. And this has always been my desire, my quest: why am I here? How am I different from this group of people?”

Shriver said such questions first came to her as a child, when she was “just confused with everyone,” she shared.

“It was like, ‘What kind of Kennedy are you? You have hair, you have teeth, you’re just one of all these people.” It was funny but sad at the same time because it took away your ability to be an individual and so I never felt like one. Maria“

“So I think my whole trip was like, ‘Who is Maria?’ Talking to people, interviewing people (and) interviewing myself in a way was a journey to answer that question,” she added.

Being part of a famous family, as well as being married to a movie star, taught her some important lessons about raising her four children: Katherine Schwarzenegger34, Christina Schwarzenegger, 33, Patrick Schwarzenegger, 31, and Christopher Schwarzenegger, 27.

“It was very important to me to raise children who felt like they were a priority in a community family,” Shriver said. “I wanted to protect their privacy. “I wanted to make sure that they weren’t part of political pamphlets, that they weren’t used as props, that they were the stars of our home… that they felt like they were of equal importance to whatever it was.” what their mom or dad did, that they were valued, that they were four separate individuals, but also a family.”

“No matter what their dad did, or what I did, or what family they came from, (I wanted them to know) what they did was important, and that’s still… what I’m about I take it very seriously. “making sure they feel like everything they do isn’t overshadowed by what their parents do, and that’s an ongoing effort.”

As part of the TODAY Making Space Wellness Weekend with Hoda Kotb, Shriver, 68, also spoke to her loved ones about the importance of staying focused. with ageShe talks about this in her new book, “I Am Mary,” which will be released in April 2025.

“I think we’re all here to change our society, change our culture, and we do that through the way we live, the way we use our voices and the way we carry ourselves,” Shriver told the audience. “The only way to reimagine aging, reimagine what it means to be a woman at 60, reimagine what it means to be a mother, what it means to be a professional, what it means to live a meaningful life, is to just do it.”