Maria Shriver showed up at her cousin Bobby Kennedy Jr.'s wedding earlier this month with a buff date - and it wasn't husband Arnold Schwarzenegger. Shriver, who has been separated from from Schwarzenegger since 2011, introduced her new beau Matthew Dowd to the family at the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Dowd is an all-star political consultant with a series of political accomplishments, a family and a history of personal heartbreak that nearly rivals the Kennedys. He's the third of 11 children from a strict Irish Catholic family. He was an altar boy and keeps at least 100 crosses in his rural Texas home. He's been married and divorced twice; his second marriage fell apart after one of his twin infant daughters died in the hospital, according to a 2007 profile piece in the Los Angeles Times.
@highlight
Maria Shriver introduced her new boyfriend Matthew Dowd to her family at cousin Bobby Kennedy's Jr.'s wedding
@highlight
The couple have been together since last fall - though this was their first public appearance
@highlight
Dowd was a key adviser on George W. Bush's 2000 and 2004 election campaigns - but later split with the president over the Iraq War
@highlight
He was raised in a strict Irish Catholic family - the third of 11 children
He also worked for Shriver's husband - taking a job on @placeholder's gubernatorial reelection campaign.