Arnold Schwarzenegger recalls telling ex-wife he had a child with housekeeper

Arnold Schwarzenegger recalls telling ex-wife Maria Shriver that he had a child with their housekeeper.

During the new Netflix documentary, Arnold, the 75-year-old actor opened up about his marriage with Maria Shriver, 67, including his illicit affair.

The former governor of California recalled the moment he admitted to his then wife, Maria, that he had an affair with their housekeeper, Mildred Baena, and fathered a son, Joseph Baena, with her.

“Maria and I went to counselling once a week,” he recalled during the documentary, “and in one of the sessions the counsellor 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,'" he remembered telling the former First Lady of California. "She was crushed because of that. 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?"

The Terminator actor admitted he feels “reluctant” to talk about the topic, as it “opens up the wounds again”.

"I think that I have caused enough pain for my family because of my f**k up. Everyone had to suffer. Maria had to suffer. The kids had to suffer. Joseph. His mother. Everyone," he stated.

Arnold added that Joseph, now 25, is a “fantastic man” and that he “makes me proud”.

Arnold and Maria, who married n 1986, finalised their divorce in December 2021, 10 years after they announced their separation.

Arnold will be available to watch on Netflix from 7 June.