In 1977, Schwarzenegger began dating a Hollywood hairdresser named Sue Moray. Later that year, he reportedly started hooking up with Shriver. Despite having what appeared to be an open relationship with Moray, Schwarzenegger apparently began to gravitate toward Shriver.
In a 2003 interview with the UK's Evening Standard, Moray said knowing they both had romances on the side "was part of the turn-on for us. He would tell me. Then I would tell him. But when I did, he got really mad. All he ever said about [Shriver] was that she was 'just a friend,' but I didn't believe him," she said.
Though the relationship with Moray eventually ran its course, Schwarzenegger continued to see Shriver...and someone else: his Red Sonja co-star, Brigitte Nielsen. In Schwarzenegger's book, "Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story," he wrote (via the Daily Beast) that he had a "hot affair" with Nielsen during filming in 1985. Schwarzenegger said Nielsen had a "personality filled with laughter and fun," but when promoting the film was finished, he returned to Los Angeles to resume his life with Shriver. TMZ confirmed that Schwarzenegger and Shriver were living together at the time of the tryst.
Nielsen told the Herald Sun that if she'd known he and Shriver were serious, she'd have reconsidered their hookup. "Maybe I wouldn't have got into it if he said 'I'm going to marry [Shriver]' and this is dead serious, but he didn't, and our affair carried on,” she said.
Schwarzenegger reportedly married Shriver a year after the Nielsen affair.
