Oh Maria! She won't be back to stand by her man, Arnie

In yet another stunning example of sexual impropriety by a member of the power elite, former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted on Tuesday that he had an extra marital affair and fathered a child with a member of his household staff 10 years ago. Schwarzenegger’s dalliance took place before he was elected governor of California and about 15 years into his marriage with Maria Shriver, a well-regarded TV journalist and a descendant from the Kennedy political clan. According to the Los Angeles Times, which broke the news of Schwarzenegger’s infidelity, the staffer recently retired after 20 years of service, and Schwarzenegger has provided their now-10-year-old son with ongoing financial support. As California’s former first couple, Schwarzenegger and Shriver were a glamorous pairing of Hollywood stardom and political dynasty. They surprised the public by formally announcing their break-up last week after 25 years of marriage, and the affair is being cited as the reason for their separation. Publicly, they’ve adopted familiar scripts. Shriver said in a statement that this was a “painful and heartbreaking time” for her. Schwarzenegger, meanwhile, sounded contrite in a separate public statement: “After leaving the governor’s office I told my wife about this event, which occurred over a decade ago. I understand and deserve the feelings of anger and disappointment among my friends and family. There are no excuses and I take full responsibility for the hurt I have caused. I have apologised to Maria, my children and my family. I am truly sorry.” All too familiar [caption id=“attachment_11396” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The philandering politician-husband and their wounded-but-loyal wives drama sounds a bit too similar.  Brian Snyder / Reuters”]  [/caption] The drama of the philandering politician-husband and their wounded-but-loyal wives is one we’ve seen play out too many times. Inevitably, the wives of powerful playboys were trotted out to salvage their husband’s professional life through a carefully crafted sound bite. Think back to Hillary Clinton, Silda Wall Spitzer, the late Elizabeth Edwards, and most recently, Anne Sinclair, wife of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF chief accused of sexually assaulting a New York hotel maid. The DSK case, in particular, evokes some uncanny similarities between Sinclair and Shriver. A recent Associated Press report describes Sinclair “as the ‘quiet force’ who gave up her career to clear the path for her husband’s, and whose celebrity, ambition and drive helped propel him to international renown and the threshold of the French presidency.” Much the same can be said of Shriver who ceded her career as a TV journalist and leveraged her Kennedy aura and social standing to elevate the political fortunes of an Austrian action star with a funny accent. As for Sinclair, she married Strauss-Kahn “when he was a junior minister for industry, and considered one of the Socialist party’s rising stars … and for a long time it was her contacts, her media prominence, social status and wealth helped give Strauss-Kahn his increasing political stature.” Like Sinclair, who   defended her husband amid the current charges (“I don’t believe for a single second the accusations of sexual assault by my husband. I am certain his innocence will be proved," she said),  Shriver too stood by her man when his political career needed it more. For example, when six women came forward during Schwarzenegger’s 2003 election to accuse him of sexual harassment,  Shriver  hit the campaign trail to publicly disavow the claims against her husband. “You can listen to all the negativity and you can listen to people who have never met Arnold, or who met him for five seconds 30 years ago,” she said. “Or you can listen to me.” Whether Sinclair, Shriver and the other political wives who are put in this unfortunate position choose to defend their husbands because they’re duped, deluded, or pragmatic is to a great degree irrelevant. By their very presence, they lend a veneer of decency and legitimacy to someone who has, through his actions, shown himself to be a selfish fool. No defence But fast-forward seven years and Shriver is no longer standing with Schwarzenegger as he balefully admits his affair (which, I need not remind you, involved someone in his employ in the home he shared with his wife and children). This time, there is no attempt from Shriver at a reconciliation, no press conference where she will come to his defence. She left him, and for this, Shriver is being lauded for having the strength to walk away from a relationship damaged by adultery. But why this change of heart after defending her husband’s behaviour all of these years? Perhaps because for all of his carousing, Shriver felt Schwarzenegger had finally crossed a line. Or perhaps because she was unhappy in her marriage and this was the last straw. Or perhaps, quite simply, because she now could. In the end, the timing of Schwarzenegger’s admission is a brilliant political calculation that served them both. Termed out and looking to revive his career in Hollywood, Schwarzenegger waited until Shriver’s actions would no longer have any political consequence. Meanwhile, she no longer had to go through public contortions to defend her ex-governor husband. Shriver stepped up to rescue Schwarzenegger’s campaign in 2003, but she thought better of coming to his aid now. It seems that when the only thing to salvage was their marriage—not power, not station—Shriver decided there wasn’t much worth saving.