Arnold Schwarzenegger has opened up about the moment he told his wife Maria Shriver that he had fathered a son with their housekeeper.
In the new documentary “Arnold,” Schwarzenegger, 75, recalls the conversation, which took place in 2011.
He said he revealed the affair during a counseling session, admitting the relationship with he had with Mildred Baena, and that he was the biological father of her son, Joseph Baena, now 25, People magazine reported.
“Maria and I went to counseling once a week,” Schwarzenegger said. “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.”
“‘Yes, Maria, Joseph is my son,’” he said. “She was crushed because of that. I had an affair in ’96. In the beginning I really didn’t know. 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 actor also admitted he’s reluctant to talk about it because “every time I do it opens up the wounds again.”
“I think that I have caused enough pain for my family because of my f*** up,” the “Terminator” star said. “Everyone had to suffer. Maria had to suffer. The kids had to suffer. Joseph. His mother. Everyone.”
Schwarzenegger says he had an affair with their housekeeper, Mildred Baena, in 1996. Baena gave birth to a son, Joseph, in 1997. Schwarzenegger did not learn that he was Joseph’s father until 2011.
Schwarzenegger says he is “deeply sorry” for the pain he caused Shriver and their children. He says he is “grateful” for their forgiveness.
“Arnold” is directed by Jason Hehir and will be released on Netflix on June 7.
It sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger struggled to tell his then wife Maria Shriver about his secret son with their housekeeper Mildred Baena.https://t.co/VtNQgOWFa5
— CNN (@CNN) June 5, 2023
