Katherine Schwarzenegger won’t run for office: ‘I have respect for it, but it’s not for me’

While I think Chris Pratt is a douche most of the time, I kind of like his wife. Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt seems like a very uncomplicated, easy-going person. She hasn’t struggled and she doesn’t pretend to. She grew up in a wealthy and famous family, fashioned a career for herself as an author and influencer, married a movie star and gave birth to two daughters. She’s religious but not fundamentalist and overall, she just seems harmless and kind of boring. She’s currently promoting her latest children’s book, Good Night, Sister. She chatted with the New York Times about writing, raising her two girls and being married to Pratt. Some highlights:

She created a version of her own childhood for her daughters. Like her mother, she has built a career as an author and media personality, and also married a famous actor. She lives minutes from where she grew up and regularly visits both parents, who separated in 2011 and finalized their divorce in 2021. Ms. Shriver hosts a weekly mommy-and-me class for Lyla and her friends, and Mr. Schwarzenegger keeps a miniature pony in his backyard that the girls love to pet.

She loved her childhood: “I know this sounds crazy, but I really would love to just do exactly what they did. I look back on how much of life my parents kept private, and I have a lot of respect for it. I think they kept a lot of their relationship private, they kept us kids private — you know, they didn’t take us to red carpets, they didn’t have us parading around in front of everybody.”

Where she met Chris Pratt: She shared that the two met in church. Ms. Schwarzenegger Pratt is Catholic — she is the granddaughter of a Kennedy, after all. Mr. Pratt, she said, was baptized Catholic but grew up going to other Christian churches. The two eventually crossed paths at Zoe Church, one of the hip evangelical churches in Los Angeles frequented by Justin Bieber. Ms. Schwarzenegger Pratt had been going to Zoe with her brother Patrick, an actor, who was friendly with the pastor, Chad Veach. Though they have Zoe to thank for their connection, they returned to the church where Ms. Schwarzenegger Pratt was baptized, St. Monica Catholic Church, in Santa Monica, Calif., to baptize their daughters.

Daily life with Chris Pratt is not particularly glamorous. “If you would ask anybody how I was at home, they’d be like, ‘She walks around with her hair in a banana clip and a box of crackers with one of the children on her hip’,” she said. Eating too many crackers, she said, is “a constant thing that my husband is always making fun of me for. I should have bought stock in Mary’s Gone Crackers.”

She doesn’t want to respond to all of the criticism of her husband: “Growing up, hearing people say certain things about my parents, my siblings, my extended family” was difficult, she said. Her mother cautioned her to avoid the “never-ending” trap of correcting the record, however. “I see what people say. But I just know that it’s so far from the reality.”

Whether she’ll get into politics: “No. It’s really hard, it’s a lot of work, and I think if you grew up in it, you either see it and say, ‘Oh that’s something that I want to do,’ or you look at it and say, ‘I have respect for it, but it’s not for me.’ And I have respect for it, but it’s not for me.”

What she would do if her husband decided to run for office: “I mean, I think I would probably have to tackle that when and if that ever happened. I’ve just learned so much from my experience having my dad and my mom be in that, that I would really want to talk about that.”

[From The NY Times]

I respect that she knows that politics isn’t for her, but I think she should run for office! More women should, and I would prefer to see her run for office than her husband. When they got married, a lot of people believed (and still believe) that Pratt was setting himself up to eventually run for office as a Republican, just like his father-in-law. At this point? I don’t think he is. I think Pratt knows his limitations and while the desire might be there, he’d rather make tons of money in Hollywood and raise his family. Katherine would be a good “first lady” though – she has the kind of bland innocuousness which works as a political asset. Also interesting to me: they baptized their girls in the Catholic Church, not the hippie-dippy evangelical (cult) church.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Instagram.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

12 Responses to “Katherine Schwarzenegger won’t run for office: ‘I have respect for it, but it’s not for me’”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. Mika says:

    Politics would disrupt her busy clipping-her-husbands-toenails schedule.

    • Megan says:

      Their “traditional” marriage vibe is so creepy and smacks of evangelical beliefs.

  2. girl_ninja says:

    Wasn’t mean to her half brother born of the affair her father had? I don’t like meanness thrown out like that. I have younger siblings from my father who cheated and I don’t blame the kids. Anyway, I don’t think Chris is handsome, but I don’t find him unattractive so that photo of her on his lap is giving daddy daughter vibes. He looks so much older than her and I don’t even think 10 years is that big of a deal! He needs some SPF stat!

  3. HeyKay says:

    How many more years of Kennedy relatives thinking they can go into politics based on the name only do we need to put up with? Just bc she is the daughter of Arnold and Maria, she is not qualified to be in politics.

    She and Chris Pratt are both over rated. Dislike both of them.

  4. Lizzie says:

    I don’t know much about her except she’s a nepo baby. Any other interviews with women writers where they ask if she’s thinking of going into politics? She is cute, has an Anna Kendrick look.

  5. Concern Fae says:

    I know lots of lapsed Catholic parents who still get their babies baptized. Why? Because it is a total pain in the ass to do it later. Adult converts have to go through a *two year* very public process to convert. It’s also conversion into a very conservative form of Catholicism. It’s why so many of the online Catholics are so deeply creepy – they are converts who got red-pilled going through it.

    Many will put their kids into religious ed long enough for first communion. If you come from a Catholic family, you’ll be going to weddings and funerals your whole life. Not being able to go to Communion with everyone else (especially if you are some other type of Christian) can feel deeply alienating.

    The kid can just grow up to be a wise ass lapsed Catholic like the rest of us, but that means doing the sacraments as a kid.

    • Allison says:

      Nah, don’t waste your time. It’s actually fun from the pews making fun of everyone that still goes through with it. No guilt about teaching your kid to live a lie and you get your Sunday mornings to yourself.

  6. Lisa says:

    it’s bananas and so very appropriate for end stage America that someone would even ask someone who I dont think has ever had a job if they would run for office based on being related to some politicians

    • Ange says:

      Exactly! Why on earth should she go into politics, she’s done nothing of note. For the incredibly driven parents they had, the Schwarzenegger kids haven’t really set the world on fire.

    • Thinking says:

      I think all the Kennedys get asked if they want to go into politics. I don’t think there is a Kennedy out there who hasn’t been asked the question.

  7. Ameerah M says:

    I will always give her and her siblings side eye for how they have treated their brother. I understand the complicated emotions involved but basically ignoring a sibling because you’re mad about what your FATHER did is crappy.

  8. Mf says:

    Let’s be honest: Chris Pratt is not a serious person, and he’s not good at managing his image. He’d never survive in politics. While I don’t particularly want her to run, Katherine would be better at it than him.