Keller @ Large: Not As Glamorous As You Think
BOSTON (CBS) - After 25 years of marriage and four kids, the ultimate American power couple, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, have announced they're separating, and I'm sorry to hear it.
Listen to Jon's commentary:
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They always seemed like a really interesting, in-love pair, each with their own career, then she putting hers on hold to support his political ambitions, him standing by her through family losses, a real-life couple watching each other's back, like real-life couples without famous names do.
Even the trashy web site coverage of their separation, the kind replete with emphatic statements by anonymous "friends" who probably haven't been within a mile of the couple in months, includes references to the genuine bond between them.
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Nonetheless, Arnold and Maria are splitsville, for now at least, and I just wonder how they hung on for this long.
Most real marriages, the experts say, don't thrive strictly as a public performance; there needs to be an honest-to-goodness private life going on that creates real bonds and shared experiences, the kind of stuff that can pull you through the rocky stretches.
From the outside it doesn't seem as if Arnold and Maria had that luxury.
Would it surprise you to learn that they stayed together longer than they would have if Schwarzenegger hadn't been governor?
For some reason, politicians think we expect them to be more than mere mortals, although I've never met anyone with a clue who did expect that.
In any case, it once again seems that money and fancy material things can't substitute for the benefits of close interpersonal bonds.
Not all marriages are going to last, no matter how much quality time the couple has together.
Sometimes, less may well be more. And the truth is, nobody outside of that family really knows what's gone on between them, not even TMZ, believe it or not.
But we do know that they're living apart, even though there are still teenaged children at home, a move that had to have some serious history behind it.
And right now, is there a happily married person among us who would want any part of the supposedly glamorous life they've been leading?
You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.
