Arnold Schwarzenegger knows how to deliver a good dad joke, but his ex-wife might not be laughing. At Chris Wallace’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony on Thursday, the Terminator star couldn’t resist a little divorce joke while honoring the journalist.
Shriver started her career in media in the late 1970s and is an Emmy award-winning journalist. Schwarzenegger made a speech at the ceremony where he quipped, “I know a lot about journalists. I’ve been interviewed - you can imagine, in my lifetime - by thousands and thousands of journalists."
“But not only that, I was also married to a journalist," he continued. Then came the punchline: “The only difference between Chris and Maria is that Chris has never taken half my money.” Of course, Arnold didn't leave the divorce hurting financially after she took her half. He has a reported net worth of $1.2 billion.
His 25-year marriage to the ABC reporter ended in 2011 when it was revealed that he had an affair with their housekeeper, Mildred Baena, which resulted in his youngest son, Joseph Baena.
It's not the first time he's made a jab at the financial impact of the divorce. In 2023 when he was promoting The Man with the Bag he poked fun at the residuals he gets from his ’90s holiday classic: “Jingle All the Way was the greatest Christmas movie of all time. They play it the whole month of December. I know because my ex-wife calls me about the residual," he siad at Amazon’s Upfront panel in New York.
Arnold has always owned up to the fact that it was his fault. He told PEOPLE in 2023, “Because remember, it’s not like we had a feud. We didn’t have a fight. It’s just my f--- up, right? She said, 'Okay, this is what it is,' and then she decided to make a split, so it was her decision."
The couple, who tied the knot in 1986, share four children: Katherine, 35; Christina, 34; Patrick, 32; and Christopher, 27.
Despite the jokes, Arnold has repeatedly stressed the importance of family and has praised his coparenting with Shriver. “If there’s Oscars for how to handle divorce, Maria and I should get it for having the least amount of impact on the kids,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “We did Easter together, Mother’s Day together, Christmases together, all birthdays — everything together.”
Now 75 and in a relationship with Heather Milligan, Arnold has embraced every chapter of his life and has a great relationship with Joseph.