As the daughter of activist Eunice Shriver Kennedy and the niece of President John F. Kennedy, a life of service was inevitable for Maria Shriver, who tells HELLO! that she is determined to keep that multi-generational Kennedy-Shriver tradition alive.
"I always tell my children, just pick something but do something," the 70-year-old says on a gorgeous September afternoon at The Hideaway in Beverly Hills.
It is here that Maria is presented with a cheque from Oh My Mahjong for $150,000 toward the Women's Alzheimer's Movement (WAM), the foundation launched in 2010 in response to The Shriver Report's ground-breaking story that two out of three brains that develop Alzheimer’s belong to women.
"My children are all engaged in some way, shape, or form," says Maria, who shares four adult children—Katherine, Christina, Patrick, and Christopher—with ex-husband Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"They're all helpful in the Women's Alzheimer's Movement, they all work at the Special Olympics, and they all help out at Best Buddies. Katherine's very involved in animals, and she's an ambassador for the Special Olympics, as is her husband [Chris Pratt]. It's a family affair, and we're all trying to do our part."
© Getty Images for Oh My Mahjong"My children are all engaged in some way, shape, or form... It's a family affair, and we're all trying to do our part."
Maria was a journalist for over two decades until then-husband Arnold became the Governor of California in 2003 and she stepped down from her role with the American network NBC to become California's First Lady.
Her focus pivoted full-time to philanthropy, notably becoming a board member of the Special Olympics, the organization her mother founded in 1968, and Best Buddies, a one-to-one friendship and jobs program for people with intellectual disabilities.
In 2003, her beloved father, Sargent Shriver, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s which put her on the path toward becoming one of the world’s most recognizable Alzheimer’s advocates. WAM then became the world’s first organization to focus on women’s increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease, and in 2022 merged with the Cleveland Clinic.
© Getty Images for Oh My MahjongHowever, Maria has been open about how difficult it is to encourage women to think about their own brain health in a world where they are also being asked to focus on children, careers, aging parents, and partners.
"The media landscape is fractured, so you just have to keep saying the same thing over and over," says Maria. "We have to continue to talk about it in different avenues."
To break through that noise, Maria is embracing unexpected platforms—including the game of Mahjong, which blew up during the COVID-19 pandemic and which Maria has been playing for over a year alongside her children.
A tile-based game developed in the 19th century in China, the game has been praised for encouraging social connection and cognitive stimulation among women.
© Getty Images for Oh My Mahjong"Mahjong activates the brain and stresses the brain," says Maria. "And Mahjong brings people together, which is another pillar of a brain-healthy lifestyle."
As the clinking of Mahjong tiles and laughter between new friends filled The Hideaway, Maria was joined by daughters Katherine and Christina, along with movie producer Suzanne Todd and actress Rachael Harris.
© Getty Images for Oh My MahjongIt was Susie Sheinberg who connected Maria with Oh My Mahjong founder Megan Trottier, and Megan who presented Maria with the cheque after choosing to donate a percentage of their sales to WAM.
"I do a lot of games on Instagram and in the Sunday Paper and so this was a partnership made in heaven," says Maria. The Sunday Paper is Maria's award-winning digital publication that aims to "inspire hearts and minds and elevate the voices and insights of those living their wildly authentic and deeply meaningful lives."
© Getty Images for Oh My MahjongAs Maria looks to the next decade of her life, she says that her focus remains on staying in the present.
"I'm really trying to drill down on brain health, Alzheimer's prevention and women's health," she says. "And on the Sunday Paper, where we've created an incredible universe that I think really raises people up, helps move humanity forward, and shows that journalism can be a positive force in people's lives, not just a negative.
"That's really important to me because I got into journalism to inspire people, to inform them and to ignite them to change their own lives, and so I'm trying to continue to do that through the Sunday Paper universe, and I feel really good that I'm in the right zeitgeist for me."
