Arnold Schwarzenegger says his 'heart stopped' when Maria Shriver confronted him about affair
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Nearly three decades after fathering a child outside of his marriage, Arnold Schwarzenegger is opening up about the heart-stopping moment when he fessed up to his wife in a therapy session.
The upcoming Netflix docuseries Arnold, set to debut on June 7, takes an intimate look at Schwarzenegger's journey from bodybuilding champ to action star to politician. It also confronts Schwarzenegger's personal scandals, including his affair with family housekeeper Mildred Baena, which occurred when he was still married to Maria Shriver and resulted in the birth of his son, Joseph Baena.
"Maria and I went to counseling once a week," Schwarzenegger recalled in the doc, per 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.'"
"I thought my heart stopped," Schwarzenegger admitted. "And then I told the truth. 'Yes, Maria, Joseph is my son.'"
Phillip Faraone/Getty Arnold Schwarzenegger
The Terminator actor, who married Shriver in 1986 and shares four children with her, also wrote about this therapy session in his 2012 memoir, Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story. Schwarzenegger called Shriver "the perfect wife" and remembers begging for forgiveness after owning up to the affair. In the new docuseries, he said that following his admission, Shriver was "crushed." He added that even now 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," Schwarzenegger said. "Everyone had to suffer. Maria had to suffer. The kids had to suffer. Joseph. His mother. Everyone."
Schwarzenegger 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."
Schwarzenegger went on to say that his son Joseph is 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."
The affair came to light following Schwarzenegger's second term as governor of California in 2011. He and Shriver announced their separation in May of that year. Days later, Schwarzenegger publicly apologized for the affair via The Los Angeles Times, saying, "There are no excuses and I take full responsibility for the hurt I have caused. I have apologized to Maria, my children and my family. I am truly sorry."
Arnold flexes on Netflix June 7. Watch its trailer below.
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