Arnold Schwarzenegger Recalls Moment He Told Maria Shriver He Had Child With Housekeeper

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 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 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. He 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.