Signs Maria Shriver & Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Marriage Was Never Going To Last

In his 2023 Netflix documentary “Arnold,” Arnold Schwarzenegger recounted the scandal that ended his marriage to Maria Shriver. The actor confirmed his affair with the housekeeper which resulted in a son, Joseph Baena. In the documentary, Schwarzenegger revealed that Shriver had long suspected him as the father of Mildred Baena’s son. “Maria and I went to counseling once a week,” he recalled. “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 thought my heart stopped, and then I told the truth,” via Us Weekly. The housekeeper had worked with the family for over 20 years before the scandal broke. “I had an affair in ’96,” the Kindergarten Cop star noted in the series. 

Schwarzenegger explained that he wasn’t positive that Joseph Baena was indeed his child. “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?” In 2011, Mildred recounted the moment she revealed the secret to Shriver. “Maria would ask if I needed to talk to her, and I kept saying no. Finally, she asked point blank. Maria asked me directly if Joseph was Arnold’s son, and I just broke down,” Baena explained to People.