United Kingdom, March 24 -- Maria Shriver's divorce from Arnold Schwarzenegger was "brutal".

The 69-year-old has detailed the collapse of her 25-year marriage to the actor and former governor of California in her book of poetry, 'I Am Maria', in which she also writes her life "blew up" in 2011 after her now 77-year-old ex admitted to fathering a child with their housekeeper, Mildred Baena.

Revealing in the book how his affair left her "wracked with confusion, anger, fear, sadness, and anxiety", Maria added in an excerpt obtained by People: "It broke my heart, it broke my spirit, it broke what was left of me.

"Without my marriage, my parents, a job - the dam of my lifelong capital-D Denial just blew apart."

Journalist and author Maria ...