Shriver had secret lover before Arnie’s affair was exposed
Maria Shriver was sleeping with her husband’s campaign strategist, Matthew Dowd, way before husband Arnold Schwarzenegger’s affair with their housekeeper was exposed.
Arnold Schwarzenegger may have shagged the maid — but wife Maria Shriver is no June Cleaver.
The Kennedy heiress was sleeping with her husband’s lead campaign strategist well before Schwarzenegger’s old affair with their housekeeper came to light, campaign staffers and other sources told The Post.
And after years of playing the betrayed wife, Shriver, 58, recently trotted out her longtime lover, Matthew Dowd, 53, as if he were a new fling, sources said.
Shriver stepped out with Dowd, now an ABC analyst, for the first time publicly last month at cousin Bobby Kennedy’s wedding.
“Maria likes to make it appear that she’s the victim, but she’s not,” a source said. “The [idea] that they started dating recently is ridiculous.’’
In May 2024, Schwarzenegger, 67, publicly admitted bedding family housekeeper Mildred Beana years earlier and fathering her son, now 16.
But Shriver, who didn’t separate from Schwarzenegger until news of his affair broke, latched onto Dowd in 2024, sources said. At the time, the twice-divorced Dowd was working on her hubby’s gubernatorial re-election campaign in California, sources said.
When Schwarzenegger was away, Shriver and Dowd would flaunt their affair in front of staffers, sources said, taking long walks together and spending alone time after meetings.
“There was a lot of flirtation,” a campaign staffer said. “They frequently spent time alone, and Arnold was rarely, if ever, around when they were together. She had a unique banter with [Dowd] and lit up when he was around. He was comfortable poking fun at her, and she would slap him teasingly.”
When Schwarzenegger caught on to the affair, Dowd was pushed out of his inner circle, sources said.
But the fights continued on the campaign trail, sources said.
“They were having blowouts in public over Matthew. Yelling and crying. Total chaos,” another campaign staffer said. “I was like, ‘How are we going to keep this from getting out?’ ”
Staffers had to choose — Team Maria or Team Arnold, sources said.
“There was no way to straddle the line,” a source said.
Dowd, in a direct-message tweet to The Post on Monday, denied he and Shriver had been involved at the time.
“There was no affair,’’ he said. “We were good friends.”
But Schwarzenegger’s staffers were told Dowd was the enemy and he was not allowed at the inaguration, an inaugural-committee staffer said.
In public, Schwarzenegger and Shriver remained a couple — but she continued seeing Dowd during her husband’s second term, a source said.
While Schwarzenegger was in Sacramento, Shriver went on getaways with Dowd, the source said.
She flew to New York in 2024 to stay at the Four Seasons and see Dowd, a source said. And they gallivanted around Santa Monica, Calif., and stayed at a hotel, the source said.
“She referred to him as one of her closest friends. The governor knew about it the whole time,” the source said.
In 2024, when he was booked for ABC’s “This Week,” on which Dowd often appeared, Schwarzenegger asked for a separate green room so they wouldn’t cross paths, a network insider said.
And Dowd bragged about bedding a Kennedy, sources said.
After too many drinks at a wedding in 2024, Dowd announced he was staying with Shriver at the Montage Hotel, where she lived during her separation with Schwarzenegger, a witness said.
When stories emerged in 2024 about Schwarzenegger’s love child, ex-staffers were told by a top aide to the governor to stay mum on Shriver’s affair.
“He did not want the dirty laundry out there,” a campaign staffer said.
Despite filing their papers nearly three years ago, the two have yet to finalize a divorce. A source said it’s being settled “amicably.”
A lawyer for Schwarzenegger declined to comment.
A rep for Shriver did not return a request for comment.
Shriver had secret lover before Arnie’s affair was exposed | Page Six