Maria Shriver seeks legal separation from Arnold Schwarzenegger

Maria Shriver, the former NBC newscaster and the first lady of California has filed for divorce from Arnold Schwarzenegger. Shriver is seeking joint custody of their two minor sons Patrick and Christopher and cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for the end of their 25-year union, reported the HollywoodReporter .

On June 18, Shriver signed the court documents but waited until Friday to send them to Los Angeles Superior Court, possibly to minimize media attention.

In the absence of a prenuptial agreement between the couple,Shriver may be awarded half of the wealth earned by Schwarzenegger throughout his career.

Shriver and Schwarzenegger had announced their separation on May 9^th. A week later, Arnold admitted to have fathered a child out of marriage with a household staff.

The separated couple have four children together. Arnold's love child is 14 years old and was so far thought to be the son of the house staff's then-husband.

Beana, the house staff worked for the couple for more than 20 years. It was only last year that Shriver learned of the affair.