'I Thought My Heart Stopped': Arnold Schwarzenegger Reveals Ex-Wife Maria Shriver Was 'Crushed' When He Confessed to Fathering Love Child With Housekeeper
June 5 2023, Published 7:44 p.m. ET
Arnold Schwarzenegger opened up about the moment he broke the news of his love child to then-wife Maria Shriver, RadarOnline.com has learned, revealing it put their relationship to the test like never before.
In the Netflix docuseries Arnold, the former governor of California recalled his former spouse being "crushed" after she learned of his child born out of an affair.
Maria and Arnold divorced in 2021 after being married for 35 years. The couple had four children together, Katherine, Christina, Christopher and Patrick.
There was no denying the similarities between Arnold and his son Joseph Baena, whom he fathered with housekeeper Mildred Baena.
Arnold recalled the moment that he came clean to then-wife Maria — and the toll his dark secret took on their family.
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"Maria and I went to counseling once a week," Arnold said in the docuseries. "And in one of the sessions the counselor said, 'I think today Maria wants to be very specific about something. She wants to know if you are the father of Joseph.' And I was like — I thought my heart stopped, and then I told the truth."
The "truth" was that Joseph, the housekeeper's son, was actually his.
"She was crushed because of that," the Terminator actor continued.
The former body builder opened up about his affair, which began in 1996, a year before Joseph was born in October 1997.
"In the beginning I really didn't know," Arnold confessed. "I just started feeling the older he got the more it became clear to me and then it was really just a matter of how do you keep this quiet? How do you keep this a secret?"
The former California lawmaker noted that even years later, he was "reluctant talking about it is because every time I do it opens up the wounds again."
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Arnold acknowledged the error of his ways and how his well-kept secret impacted those closest to him.
"I think that I have caused enough pain for my family because of my f--- up," Arnold continued. "Everyone had to suffer. Maria had to suffer. The kids had to suffer. Joseph. His mother. Everyone."
Arnold added that he was "going to have to live with it the rest of my life."
"People will remember my successes and they will also remember my failures. This is a major failure. I had failures in the past in my career, but this is a whole different ball game, dimension of failure," the actor noted.
