Arnold Schwarzenegger Jokes About Ex-Wife Maria Shriver and Movie Residuals ArticlePure

Arnold Schwarzenegger has made a rare comment about ex-wife Maria Shriver.

During Amazon’s Upfront 2025 Presentation in New York City on Monday, May 12, the 77-year-old actor and former California governor spoke about his upcoming holiday movie The Man With the Bag but also gave a shoutout to another seasonal classic of his — with a surprise nod to Shriver, 69.

“Jingle All the Way was the greatest Christmas movie of all time,” said Schwarzenegger. “They play it the whole month of December.”

He joked in addition, “I know because my ex-wife calls me about the residual.”

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Schwarzenegger opened up to PEOPLE about his dynamic with Shriver in September 2023 ahead of the release of his motivational book Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life.

“We never left the [first] chapter,” said the Terminator star, who finalized his divorce from Shriver in December 2021 after she filed a decade prior. “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.”

“But the fact is, we always made it very clear that the kids should not suffer because of that,” Schwarzenegger added.

Two months before Shiver filed for divorce, Schwarzenegger publicly admitted he had fathered a son— Joseph Baena, now 27 — with the family’s longtime housekeeper Mildred Baena. Shriver and Schwarzenegger share four children: Katherine, 35, Christina, 33, Patrick, 31, and Christopher, 27.

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But as Schwarzenegger told PEOPLE in September 2023 of his ex and their co-parenting life, “My chapter with Maria will continue on forever. Even though it’s a different relationship, there’s no reason for me to feel anything other than love for her.”

Shriver recently spoke to PEOPLE ahead of the release of her first-ever book of poetry, I Am Maria, which include poems expressing deep emotional pain she’d long kept hidden.

It’s been a freeing experience for the mother of four, who told PEOPLE in March that she’s in “such a good place” these days — and that she and Schwarzenegger are united in their love and support for their children and grandchildren: Lyla, 4½, Eloise, 3 this month, and Ford, 6 months.

“We laugh a lot about our kids, our grandkids, ourselves,” she said, “and we are proud of the fact that we are still in conversation. For almost 50 years!”