Arnold Schwarzenegger says his ex-wife Maria Shriver was 'crushed' when he told her he had a secret child with their housekeeper

• Arnold Schwarzenegger "opens up the wounds" of his past in a new Netflix docuseries.
• He recalled the moment his ex-wife found out that he had fathered a child with their housekeeper.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is reflecting on the moment his ex-wife Maria Shriver confronted him about the son he fathered with their housekeeper.

"The Terminator" star is the subject of a new three-part Netflix docuseries titled "Arnold," which takes a close look at the Austria native's journey from athlete to actor and American politician.

It also delves into his personal life. The third episode touches on the affair Schwarzenegger had in 1996 with a member of their household staff, Mildred Baena, which resulted in the birth of his fifth child, Joseph Baena.

Speaking to the camera, the former bodybuilding champion said: "Maria and I went to counseling once a week, and then in one of the sessions the counselor said, 'I think today Maria wants to go and be very specific about something. She wants to know if you are the father of Joseph.'"

"And I thought my heart stopped. And then I told the truth: 'Yes, Maria, Joseph is my son.'"

He said that following his admission, Shriver was "obviously crushed."

According to the actor's memoir, "Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story," their conversation took place in 2011, the day after he left office as Governor of California.

In the documentary, Mark Z. Barabak, a journalist from the Los Angeles Times, recounted how he received a tip about the affair and even had it verified by Schwarzenegger's team but decided to hold off on publishing the story to "afford him and Maria Shriver some time to talk to their family."

Schwarzenegger said that even over a decade later, he feels "reluctant" to talk about the scandal, as "every time I do it opens up the wounds again."

"I think that I have caused enough pain for my family because of my fuck up. Because of that everyone had to suffer, Maria had to suffer, the kids had to suffer, Joseph, his mother, everyone."

The former Mr. Universe continued: "I am going to have to live with it the rest of my life. 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."

Speaking about his son, who makes a brief appearance in the episode but does not speak on camera, Schwarzenegger said that he did not know definitively that Baena was his for many years.

"In the beginning, I really didn't know, I just started kind of feeling. The older he got the more it became clear to me," he said. "And it was then just really a matter of, how do you keep this quiet? How do you keep this a secret?"

He described Baena, who has followed in his footsteps and become a bodybuilder, as a "fantastic man" who "makes me proud."

"It was wrong what I did," the former governor added. "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. I love him and he has turned out to be an extraordinary young man."

Schwarzenegger and Shriver, who is the niece of John F. Kennedy, were married in 1986 and share daughters Katherine, 33, and Christina, 31, and sons Patrick, 29, and Christopher, 25. Although Shriver filed for divorce soon after their fateful counseling session, the pair did not finalize their divorce until December 2021.

"I'm very happy that within this sad story, Maria and I were able to raise the kids really well," Schwarzenegger said.

"I think that there is nothing more important than having a good partner by your side and Maria was exactly that. We have a really great relationship. 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."

"Arnold" begins streaming on Netflix on June 7.