Arnold Schwarzenegger told “crushed” Maria Shriver the truth of his and Mildred Baena’s affair during a 2011 marriage counseling session.
In the 75-year-old actor’s “Arnold” documentary, out Wednesday, he recalled their counselor asking a “very specific” question at his then-wife’s request (via The Sun.)
“She wants to know if you’re the father of Joseph,” the counselor wondered, referencing their housekeeper’s son, who was born in 1997.
“I thought my heart stopped,” the former governor noted in the Netflix special. “And then I told the truth.”
When Schwarzenegger replied, “Yes, Maria. Joseph is my son,” the journalist, 67, “was obviously crushed by that.”
The “Kindergarten Cop” star went on to explain that after his 1996 affair, he did not initially believe he was Joseph’s father as Mildred was married to Rogelio Baena at the time.
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“In the beginning I really didn’t know,” Schwarzenegger, who also shares Katherine, 33, Christina, 31, Patrick, 29, and Christopher, 25, with Shriver, explained. “But the older he got, the more it became clear to me.
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“It was then just a matter of, ‘How do you keep this quiet?’” he admitted.
When Schwarzenegger came clean about the paternity scandal in 2011, he and Shriver called it quits after more than two decades of marriage.
“[The divorce] was very, very difficult in the beginning,” the politician told the Hollywood Reporter of the “f–k-up” earlier this month. “Eventually, you move on. … She and I are really good friends and very close, and we are very proud of the way we raised our kids.”
Schwarzenegger joked that he and Shriver, whose finalized their divorce in 2021, should get an Oscar Award for doing “everything together” and giving their four kids the “least amount of impact” post-split.
As for Shriver, she explained to Hoda Kotb in February how she re-evaluated “every aspect” of her life after the cheating came to light.
“[I asked myself], ‘What was my role? What could I do better? What had I done that put me in that place?’” she shared on the “Making Space” podcast. “I did everything that was available that I could find to myself.”
Katherine, Christina, Patrick and Christopher, for their part, do not have a relationship with Joseph. The 25-year-old does however, maintain a close bond with their dad.
