A few years ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s marriage to Maria Shriver was in shambles, after it was revealed that Arnold had a love child with the couple’s housekeeper, Patty Baena. The affair happened more than a decade ago but it left Schwarzenegger’s personal life in pieces after he told Shriver about the affair.
In an interview with Howard Stern for his SiriusXM show, Schwarzenegger opened up about his past mistakes and his relationship with his love child, Joseph Baena, 17. Of the situation he said, “It is fantastic.”
Schwarzenegger continued, “He’s terrific and he totally understands the situation. So, it all has worked out… It’s a very tough situation for him. It’s a very tough situation for my kids. Very tough situation for my family. It was tough for everybody. But it has happened and now we have to figure it out, right?”
As for his other children which he has with Maria Shriver, it looks like they have all gotten over the huge hurdle that Schwarzenegger’s affair caused. “My kids are a straight 10. I am so proud of them. I’m so in love with them.”
He explained of a recent gesture his whole family gave him while he was promoting the Terminator film in Germany, “I walk into the room and I see the room full of balloons… It was from all four kids and from my wife. There was a note — ‘You’re the greatest dad, the greatest man, we love you dad’ — Each one sent a card. Each one sent a gift. That’s the relationship we have.”
So if he’s still referring to Maria as his wife, does that mean they’re still together? Not so fast. He and Maria are divorced. In fact, he calls the divorce his “biggest failure.”
“I had personal setbacks, but this was, without any doubt, the biggest setback and the biggest failure. Without any doubt. Not only failure, but you feel like, ‘I’m to blame for it. It was me that screwed up.’ And you can’t point the finger at anyone else. So yeah, I was disappointed in it. It’s always easy to be smart in hindsight. The thing was how do you make the best of that situation?”
That doesn’t mean the two didn’t try to work it out. In fact, Arnold admits that he did try therapy with Shriver, even though it was against his better judgment. Of his former therapist, Arnold said, “That guy was so full of s—. He said more crap and more nonsense. It was absolutely counterproductive to our future relationship… Maria talked me into it.”
At least the family seems to be a happy unit these days.
[Photo by Ben A. Pruchnie / Getty Images]
