Growing up in the spotlight is never easy, especially if your parents are both Hollywood
and political royalty.
But Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt has made it through, found her Prince Charming, and
her calling — with a little help from above.
Keep watching to see how she did it.
Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt grew up in the spotlight as the eldest daughter of "Terminator"
actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, TV journalist
and member of the Kennedy family.
Despite her high-profile upbringing, she enjoyed a normal childhood, as she told People in
2017.
"My parents raised the four of us kids to have a very normal upbringing and a normal
childhood."
"We didn't go to red carpet things all the time."
On Instagram, she has shared glimpses of her childhood in throwback photos.
One photo showed the entire Schwarzenegger gang dressed up for Halloween back in the
day, while another showed her on horseback with her mom.
Though Schwarzenegger Pratt enjoyed a normal childhood, she still had to deal with parents'
fame, of course.
According to The Washington Post, her dad gave a speech during her high school graduation
in 2008, while her mom gave the commencement speech during her graduation from the University
of Southern California.
She also dealt with the public separation of her parents after news came out that her
dad had an affair with a member of their household staff and fathered a child.
Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt wasn't always the confident woman she appears to be today.
She started dealing with body image issues in the fourth grade, and it would continue
throughout her teenage years.
In 2010, she told USA Today,
"It was the first time I was aware of my body and compared what I looked like to what other
girls looked like.
It freaked me out."
Her body image issues continued through middle school.
While Schwarzenegger Pratt admitted she didn't have an eating disorder, she still felt like
she was competing with other girls when it came to their appearances.
Her close relationship with her parents helped her work through her body image woes.
She told USA Today,
"My mom was always good with me.
She always checked in with me.
I had the best relationship with my mom.
I still do.
I talk to her four times a day."
She noted that she enjoys a close relationship with her dad too, saying
"I talk to him about boys, about going out, about what I'm interested in, about business."
In 2010 Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt published her debut book, "Rock What You've Got: Secrets
to Loving Your Inner and Outer Beauty from Someone Who's Been There and Back."
The book was about peer pressure, body image, and self-esteem.
"Rock What You've Got" was inspired by her struggles with body image growing up.
In an interview with USA Today, she shared the reason she decided to write the book.
She told the outlet,
"I want to let girls know they are not alone with the changes and doubts about their body."
According to Harper's Bazaar, "Rock What You've Got" hit the New York Times Best-Seller list.
When Schwarzenegger Pratt hit that milestone, she was busy studying communications with
a minor in gender studies at USC.
However, she took the time to celebrate an achievement that was all her own — unrelated
to her family pedigree.
She told the magazine,
"I think doing this book has definitely given me more credibility as my own person."
"It's not the most exciting thing to kind of go out and be harassed by people, but I
think that if you just kind of try and take a deep breath and keep your mouth shut that,
you know, you'll be fine."
While attending the University of Southern California, Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt
thought about changing her last name because people would approach her to talk about her
famous family.
She told Harper's Bazaar in 2011,
"It's something I deal with every day, and I am hyperconscious about it.
When I got to college, people — much more guys than girls because girls don't give a
crap about bodybuilding — were coming up to me, and it would automatically jump to
a conversation about my dad and weight lifting or how to do a proper bicep curl.
It's like, 'Do you want to date my father, or do you want to date me?'"
While she was in college, her family made the news after her dad was revealed to have
fathered a child with a member of their household staff over a decade earlier, as noted by the
Los Angeles Times.
That event prompted her parents' separation.
Since her parents had largely shielded her and her siblings from the media, the attention
the family received after the scandal broke was shocking to her.
She said,
"I would go out to lunch, and literally 20 people would come and scream at me.
And I'm like, This is so inappropriate; you're trying to provoke me to have an attack and
say something crazy."
After becoming a best-selling author with her debut book and graduating from the University
of Southern California, Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt released a second book called "I Just
Graduated...
Now What?" in 2014.
The book was inspired by her time graduating from college and not knowing what she wanted
to do.
She told Teen Vogue,
"I felt like I was the only person in the world who didn't know what I wanted to do.
A book like this would have been helpful for me."
After graduating from college and speaking with accomplished people like tennis star
Serena Williams and EGOT winner John Legend for her second book, Schwarzenegger Pratt
told the magazine that she learned how to accept the unknown and not plan so much.
She said,
"Now I'm more excited about testing the waters in a bunch of different areas."
Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt knew "Guardians of the Galaxy" actor Chris Pratt was the one
early on in their relationship.
"We both knew right away that this is where our relationship was headed, and we clicked."
The two started dating in 2018, and they met at church, as Pratt told Extra in 2019.
Before he revealed how they met, a rumor had spread that her mom introduced them.
A source told People in 2018 that Maria Shriver served as a matchmaker for the two.
Throughout 2018, the famous duo was photographed together by numerous outlets.
They made things Instagram official when Pratt posted a photo collage of the author in honor
of her birthday in 2018.
The two wasted no time in getting engaged and tying the knot.
The couple wed in 2019 after a year of dating.
According to People, the intimate wedding ceremony took place in Montecito, California.
"I have an insane addiction to rainbow sprinkles.
Not necessarily eating them on ice cream, but actually just eating them totally plain."
Besides writing and eating rainbow sprinkles, Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt has a number
of passions.
She served as a brand ambassador for Pedigree and the ASPCA, and she's said her love of
dogs goes back to her childhood.
She told Us Weekly that she's grown up around dogs and loved them her whole life.
She also spoke about her own dog, whom she adopted after fostering.
Although she was once a foster mom to seven dogs she said,
"I have one love of my life right now, in the dog area, which is my little Maverick."
Maverick inspired her third book, "Maverick and Me," a children's book about a dog who
was rescued and later adopted, which was published in 2017.
She's also passionate about the Special Olympics.
In 2021, she served as a global ambassador with her actor hubby, Chris Pratt.
Her family has played a major role in the organization, which advocates for the inclusion
of people with intellectual disabilities.
Her grandmother Eunice Kennedy Shriver founded the Special Olympics.
Schwarzenegger Pratt said in a press release for the organization,
"Special Olympics has always been a huge part of my life.
[…] My childhood consisted of going to SOI events and my cousins and I being camp counselors
at Camp Shriver."
Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt is a woman of faith, and that's what has carried her
throughout her life.
She grew up as a Catholic and even met her hubby, actor Chris Pratt, at church.
Before tying the knot in 2019, Schwarzenegger Pratt confessed on the Dear Media podcast
"Meaning Full Living" that they engaged in premarital counseling.
She told Entertainment Tonight,
"In the Catholic Church, you have to do premarital counseling before you get married, and I was
like, 'Oh my god, what is that going to be like?'
It was the most amazing thing and just the most amazing gift."
Schwarzenegger Pratt told "Fox & Friends" in 2020 that faith is one of the things that
bonded her and her husband early on.
"It is a huge part of our relationship and also just a huge part of our lives and my
upbringing.
I grew up with faith being a huge part of my family's life as well."
Best-selling author Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt writes what she knows, which led to
her fourth book — "The Gift of Forgiveness: Inspiring Stories from Those Who Have Overcome
the Unforgivable" — released in 2020.
Ahead of the book's release, she told People that she drew from her own experience with
forgiveness and spoke to high-profile names like author and philanthropist Elizabeth Smart,
who was kidnapped as a teen and held captive for nearly a year.
Schwarzenegger Pratt told People,
"I found that when you're little, you learn about forgiveness on the playground.
But as you get older, it becomes very different and more complex."
Though she didn't specify what she's had to forgive in the past, she shared,
"For me, personally struggling with forgiveness throughout various stages of my life and really
trying to find books that would be able to speak to me in a way that I could relate to,
I couldn't find that."
She told the magazine that she was inspired to write the book following a sermon from
her pastor at church.
Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt welcomed her first child, daughter Lyla Maria, amid the
COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 with hubby Chris Pratt.
Since then, she has regularly shared moments with Lyla on Instagram.
However, she always hides her daughter's face to maintain her privacy, as she told "Today"
in 2021.
"One of the greatest gifts that my parents ever gave me and my siblings is the gift of
privacy."
"So it's something that is really important to my husband and I to give to our kids."
In a post published in early 2021, Schwarzenegger Pratt cradled her baby, whose face remained
hidden, for a selfie at the beach with the caption:
"Morning beach walks with my little mouse are my favorite."
In 2021, Schwarzenegger Pratt became pregnant with baby number 2.
In March 2022, she shared a photo on Instagram of the two baby dolls her daughter had put
diapers on.
She wrote in the caption,
"The latest toddler treats I find around the house... all her babies and stuffies are wearing
diapers and bandaids.
Mamas girl is nesting."
Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt has always wanted to be a mom.
In an interview with the "People Every Day" podcast in 2021, Schwarzenegger Pratt said
she's not just "blessed" to be a mom, but she's also grateful that she has a supportive
husband in Chris Pratt.
She told the outlet,
"I feel really just so blessed to be able to experience it and also experience it with
my husband, and she's just the best."
She also said she enjoys watching her loved ones take on new roles:
"I'm so grateful to be able to experience it and also be able to see my parents step
into the role as grandparents, my two brothers as uncles, and my sister as such a hands-on
aunt."
In an Instagram post published in 2021, Schwarzenegger Pratt opened up about motherhood as her baby
Lyla turned one year old and said she's loved watching her daughter grow.
The caption reads,
"Clearly, I have fully embraced the mommy and me matching moments, the girly outfits,
the bows and the wonderful things my mom saved for me to pass on to her."
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