Arnold Schwarzenegger's wife, broadcaster Maria Shriver, defended her husband Monday against accusations of chauvinism in his run for California governor, saying he was "gracious and supportive" of her career.
During a joint interview on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," which took the entire one-hour program, Shriver and Schwarzenegger answered questions from Winfrey about their marriage and about accusations that Schwarzenegger is either misogynistic or a womanizer. Schwarzenegger and Shriver, the niece of John F. Kennedy, have been married for 17 years and have four children.
Shriver said she signed on to campaign with her husband because she "didn't want to look back at this experience, that I had moaned and groaned and cried and kvetched about it."
Schwarzenegger, the Republican front-runner whose celebrity has drawn crowds of cheering fans to some campaign events, has also faced criticism for comments about group sex and drug use in an interview. Schwarzenegger, who says he doesn't remember giving the interview, is backed by only 22 percent of women voters, according to a Field Research Corp. poll published last week, compared with 35 percent for Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante.
In Shriver's first campaign appearance for her husband last week, she was greeted by jeers from a crowd of protesters in front of a Wal-Mart store in Sacramento.
Schwarzenegger, 56, has been criticized by women's groups for comments they say are demeaning to women. Dozens of women from a group called Code Pink protested in front of Schwarzenegger's Santa Monica headquarters earlier this month donning banners with slogans such as "Terminate the Barbarian."
In an interview with Esquire magazine published in July, Schwarzenegger compared himself with a beautiful woman whose looks cause people to underestimate her intelligence. "You say to yourself, 'Hey, she must be stupid or must have nothing else to offer,' which maybe is the case many times," he said. "But then again there is the one that is as smart as her breasts look, great as her face looks, beautiful as her whole body looks gorgeous, you know, so people are shocked."
Asked by Winfrey about charges she was "a Kennedy woman, and they always look the other way" when it comes to their husbands' indiscretions, Shriver replied, "That ticks me off. I know the man I'm married to."
Asked why she never appeared in an interview before with Schwarzenegger, Shriver said, "I wanted to make my own way" with her career.
