Maria Shriver is opening up about the days and weeks that followed her decision to divorce her then-husband Arnold Schwarzenegger in July 2011.
Maria and Arnold were married for 25 years before she made the decision to leave, which came two months after Arnold admitted to having a son with the family's housekeeper, Mildred Baena.
Maria recently told Hoda Kotb that she visited a convent to ask questions about what she should do moving forward. She said, "I first felt like, 'Oh I'd better go and figure out like, what is the truth?'"
She continued, "I went to a convent — I did so many things — but one of the things I did is I went to a convent, a cloistered convent, to be in silence and look for advice."
She continued, "The Reverend Mother there said to me at the very end, she said — and I actually have written about this, but I haven't shared — she said, 'I think you came here looking for permission.'
"She says, 'You can't come live here, but you do have permission to go out and become Maria.' I was like, sobbing. I was like, 'Who is that?'"
The experience brought Maria closer to her faith. She finished, "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.'"
There is more in the video below.
