Arnold Schwarzenegger reflects on when he revealed to his family that he had an affair.
In the new Netflix docu-series Arnoldthe 75-year-old actor opens up about his career in Hollywood, his tenure as governor of California and his personal scandals.
At one point, Schwarzenegger recalled admitting to his wife Maria Shriver and their children that he had an affair with their governess Mildred Baena and fathered a son, Joseph Baena, now 25, with her. .
“Maria and I went to counseling once a week,” he recalled in the documentary series, “and in one of the sessions the counselor said, ‘I think today Maria wants to be very specific on something. She wants to know if you are Joseph’s father.’ And I was like…I thought my heart stopped, and then I told the truth.”
“‘Yes, Maria, Joseph is my son,'” he remembers telling her. “She was crushed because of it. I had an affair in 1996. At first I really didn’t know. I just started to feel that the older he got, the clearer it became to me and then it was really just a matter of how do you keep it secret? how do you keep it secret?
Schwarzenegger said he felt “reluctant to talk about it, because every time I do it, it opens up the wounds again.”
“I think I caused my family enough pain because of my shit. Everyone had to suffer. Maria had to suffer. The kids had to suffer. Joseph. His mother. Everyone,” a- he stated in the Netflix document.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver in 2009.” src=”https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/UhqmICkTHHzdpZcwfk.H3w–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MQ–/https://media.zenfs.com/en/people_218/9e2426ba61537048a96232b29f62de3f” class=”caas-img”/>
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Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver in 2009.
Related: Maria Shriver Reveals She Went to a Convent After Arnold Schwarzenegger Split to ‘Seek Advice’
THE terminator The actor married Shriver, now 67, in 1986 and they share four children: Katherine, Christina, Patrick and Christopher.
“I’m going to have to live with this for the rest of my life,” Schwarzenegger said in Arnold. “People will remember my successes and they will also remember my failures. It’s a major failure. I’ve had failures in the past in my career, but that’s a whole different ball game, the of failure.”
Schwarzenegger added that his son Joseph is a “fantastic man” who “makes me proud.”
“It was wrong what I did. But I don’t want Joseph to feel like he’s not welcome in this world, because he’s very welcome in this world,” he said. he declared. “I love him and he’s turned out to be an amazing young man.”
Schwarzenegger also said he was “very happy” with how he and Shriver “were able to raise the children very well” amid “this sad story.”
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“There’s nothing more important than having a good partner by your side, and Maria has been there every step of the way. We have a great relationship,” he said. “Any kind of special day, we’re all together as a family. But that’s not what it was like when we were all together under one roof as a family. It’s not the case.”
Schwarzenegger and Shriver announced their separation in May 2011. A few days later, Schwarzenegger publicly apologized for the affair in an interview with THE Los Angeles Times: “After leaving the governor’s office, I told my wife about this event, which happened over ten years ago. I understand and deserve the feelings of anger and disappointment from my friends and family. There is no excuse and I take full responsibility for the harm I have caused. I apologized to Maria, my children and my family. I am really sorry.”
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in May, Schwarzenegger said he did not miss being married.
Related: Arnold Schwarzenegger Says His Divorce From Maria Shriver Was ‘Very Difficult’: ‘It Was My Failure’
“[The divorce] was very, very difficult at first. Eventually, you move on. I have a wonderful girlfriend, [physical therapist] Heather Milligan, who is very successful. I’m really proud of her and I love her,” he said. “At the same time, I love my wife. She and I are very good and close friends, and we are very proud of the way we raised our children.”
“Even though we had this drama, we did Easter together, Mother’s Day together, Christmases together, all birthdays — everything together,” Schwarzenegger added. “If there’s an Oscar for handling divorce, Maria and I should get it for having the least impact on the kids.”
Arnold begins streaming on Netflix on June 7.
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