COVER STORY: Maria Shriver's Broken Heart

After the former governor's bombshell betrayal, what's next for Shriver?

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Since Arnold Schwarzenegger’s shocking admission that he fathered a child with a member of his household staff more than a decade ago, all eyes have focused on his wife of 25 years, Maria Shriver.

“She is broken-hearted,” a friend tells PEOPLE in the new issue.

For Shriver, who has moved out of their Brentwood home and is currently living in a Beverly Hills hotel, it’s been a time of sadness and immense pain.

Schwarzenegger, 63, told Shriver, 55, about the secret child earlier this year after he finished his second term as Governor of California. “The magnitude of this betrayal knows no bounds,” says a friend of Shriver’s. “She had no idea.”

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Shriver said in a statement on Tuesday that she’s focusing on her four kids and asked for “compassion, respect and privacy as my children and I try to rebuild our lives and heal.”

Just how she’ll begin to pick up the pieces remains unclear, but those close to her say she’ll do whatever it takes to protect and be there for her the kids: Katherine, 21, Christina, 19, Patrick, 17, and Christopher, 13.

“No matter what, she will take the high road,” says a political source. “That’s her style and that’s her family’s style. That’s just who she is.

With reporting by ELIZABETH LEONARD

For much more on this story – including how Maria Shriver is coping with the split – pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday

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