Arnold Schwarzenegger opened up about one of the most difficult moments
in his life – and how he got through it – in a new Netflix original series
about his legacy. The actor spoke with documentarians for the new series
Arnold, including their scandalous divorce when it came out that
Schwarzenegger had a secret child with another woman. Schwarzenegger recalled:
"She was crushed."
Schwarzenegger began dating TV journalist Maria
Shriver in 1977 and married her in 1986, having four children and settling
down for an idyllic celebrity life. Unbeknownst to her, Schwarzenegger carried
on an affair with their housekeeper, Mildred Baena, and had even had a son
with her in 1996. Shriver finally discovered this secret on her own in 2011,
kicking off their highly-publicized divorce. For the first time,
Schwarzenegger has now described that confrontation on camera.
"Maria and I went to counseling once a week," the 75-year-old
explained, according to a report by PEOPLE, "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.'"
"She was crushed because of that," Schwarzenegger went on. "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?"
Schwarzenegger did not avoid the topic but did not hide how
painful it was for him either. he said he feels "reluctant talking about it
is 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. Everyone had to
suffer. Maria had to suffer. The kids had to suffer. Joseph. His mother.
Everyone."
"I am going to have to live with it the rest of my
life," he continued. "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."
Schwarzenegger's term as governor had just ended at the
time he and Shriver divorced, and since then he has returned to acting.
Schwarzenegger also mentioned in the documentary that he is proud of how he
and Shriver have continued to work together for the good of their family.
Arnold will be streaming on Wednesday, June 7 only on Netflix.
