Maria's Race Against Time

Antonio Nava / Landov As her new Alzheimer's series hits HBO, California's high-octane first lady opens up to Lynn Sherr about her family's struggle with the disease, her political ambitions—and her crazed motherhood juggling act.

I first met Maria Shriver in 1980, when I was a political reporter for ABC News and she was ringing doorbells in Maine for her Uncle Teddy Kennedy’s presidential campaign. Since then, we’ve both—how does she put it?—repositioned our lives, which in her case meant becoming a broadcast journalist herself, ultimately reporting and anchoring for NBC News. She was forced out of that job in 2004, after her husband, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was sworn in as governor of California.

“I lost my job when Arnold became governor,” she told me, explaining that what the network saw as a conflict of interest meant she had to “carve a new identity for myself.”

“I wish I’d become first lady 10 or 15 years ago, because my parents would have so enjoyed it, and they would have had so many suggestions.”

At 53, she has accomplished that with panache: raising four children; writing a bevy of bestselling books; hosting the wildly popular annual California Women’s Conference; and co-executive producing a four-part series called The Alzheimer’s Project, starting this Sunday on HBO—a companion book of the same name also launches that day—to explore the disease that has already overtaken her father, one-time vice-presidential candidate R. Sargent Shriver.

But for all her new titles, Maria Shriver is still, metaphorically speaking, ringing doorbells—putting out the word, getting out the message, telling the world what she thinks is important. When we spoke by telephone earlier this week, she was, as usual, in motion: As I took notes, she pedaled away on her LifeCycle, its telltale beeps punctuating the background—all part of her personal regime to keep Alzheimer’s at bay.

You’ve spoken very eloquently about the fact that your father doesn’t even recognize you now, but that you can live with that.

Yeah, I would say I’ve had a character transformation with both of my parents. You know, my mother [Eunice Shriver] has had several strokes now, my father with Alzheimer’s. And it runs simultaneous to having teenagers and having the job of first lady, losing my other job, trying to craft a new road for myself. And I’ve spoken about my own journey because I think that so often women are presented with everybody looking like they’ve got it all together with no problems.

You know, you see women on the cover of the magazines—they have three kids, their bodies are incredible, they have no stress. I mean, we present these perfect images of well-known women to other women, which I think actually makes women feel bad. And makes them feel like, “What the hell’s wrong with me? I can’t do all these things and everybody else seems to be able to do it.”

So I’ve tried to speak as authentically as I can, that I don’t have it all together, that the road is bumpy, and I don’t have any shame in sharing that. I find that people are so grateful that you say, “Well, I’m having a very difficult time with my parents getting older.” Or, “My parents are struggling and I’m struggling, too.” Or, “I’ve lost my job.” And all of those things—instead of saying, “No problem, I’ve got it all together.”