7 Revelations From New Arnold Schwarzenegger Tell-All Documentary
Schwarzenegger talks candidly in his new docuseries.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is coming clean about past mistakes in the new Netflix docuseries "Arnold." The action star talked openly about cheating on his wife Maria Shriver, whom he married in 1986 and shares four children with–Katherine, Christina, Patrick and Christopher. In the tell-all that debuts June 7th, he recalled the moment he told his family about the affair with their housekeeper Mildred Baena who he fathered a child, Joseph Baena, now 25, with. Read on to learn seven interesting revelations from the three- part series.
The couple went to therapy on a regular basis and during a session is when Schwarzenegger confirmed he cheated. "Maria and I went to counseling once a week," he revealed, according to PEOPLE. "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."
In the docuseries, Schwarzenegger shares how his wife took the news of his 1996 affair. "Yes, Maria, Joseph is my son,'" he told her, PEOPLE reports. "She was crushed because of that."
According to Page Six, the Terminator actor questioned if Joseph was his child because his mother was also married at the time. "In the beginning I really didn't know," he revealed in the documentary. "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?"
From bodybuilding to acting and politics, Schwarzenegger has achieved many accomplishments, but also knows he'll be remembered for his failures. "I am going to have to live with it the rest of my life," said Schwarzenegger in the trailer for Arnold. "People will remember my successes and they will also remember my failures. This is a major failure," he said referring to his affair. I had failures in the past in my career, but this is a whole different ball game, dimension of failure."
In the Netflix doc, Schwarzenegger was apprehensive to discuss the affair. PEOPLE reports that he was "reluctant talking about it because every time I do it opens up the wounds again." He added, "I think that I have caused enough pain for my family because of my f— up. Everyone had to suffer. Maria had to suffer. The kids had to suffer. Joseph. His mother. Everyone."
His four children with ex-wife Shriver do not have a relationship with Joseph, but Schwarzenegger raved about how he is a "fantastic man" who "makes me proud." He said, "It was wrong what I did. But I don't want to make Joseph feel that he is not welcomed in this world — because he is very much welcomed in this world," he said. "I love him and he has turned out to be an extraordinary young man."
Schwarzenegger and Shriver announced their separation in 2011, but didn't finalize their divorce until 2021–10 years later. The former California governor has since moved on with physical therapist Heather Milligan, but still remains close to his ex-wife. "There is nothing more important than to have a good partner by your side, and every step of the way Maria was that. We have a really great relationship," he said. "Any type of special day, we are all together as a family. But it's not what it was when we were all together under one roof as a family. That's not the case anymore."
