Many women joke they want to join a convent after a bad breakup, but Maria Shriver actually took the journey to one.
She didn't join one course, but she did seek advice from a nun shortly after her very public split from Arnold Schwarzenegger.
On the "Making Space" podcast, Shriver told host Hoda Kotb that she felt free after she filed for divorce after 25 years of marriage.
She said that speaking to the Reverend mother was an emotional experience that left her sobbing.
"The Reverend Mother said, 'I think you came here looking for permission,
You can't come live here… but you do have permission to go out and become Maria.'"
Shriver explained, "I think the word permission, I had never given myself permission 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, 'Okay, God, let's go. I'm gonna take this and learn everything I can about my role and what I need to learn.' "
Shriver filed for divorce from Schwarzenegger in 2011, a few months after he admitted to fathering a child with the family's housekeeper years earlier.
The divorce was finalized in 2021.
feature image courtesy of gage skidmore via wikicommons/flickr
