As Joseph Baena started growing up, Arnold Schwarzenegger couldn’t ignore the physical similarities that he shared with the young boy, the son of his housekeeper, with whom he had an affair.
Learning that he was the father was a well-kept secret until his wife, Maria Shriver, also noticed the telltale signs, and after forcing a confession from the action star, she terminated their marriage.
Today, Joseph at 25, looks just like his dad and dedicates a lot of his time to bodybuilding and acting.
Though the coupling was puzzling, Maria Shriver, former contributing anchor on NBC’s Dateline, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the action star turned politician, were married for 25 years in what–from the outside–seemed to be a supportive relationship.
Shriver, an award-winning journalist from the Kennedy family, left her successful career in 2004 to stand by her Austrian-born husband, the governor, as the First Lady of California.
Married in 1986, Schwarzenegger and Shriver share four children, daughters Katherine, 33, and Christina, 31, and sons Patrick, 29 and Christopher, 25.
When Shriver was pregnant with Christopher, born September 27, 1997, the family housekeeper, Mildred “Patty” Baena, was pregnant with Joseph, who was born October 2 of the same year.
The Last Action Hero star told 60 Minutes that he hadn’t known Joseph was his son until the boy “started looking like me, that’s when I kind of got it. I put things together.”
Secretly supporting Patty and his son, Shriver was unaware that the child who sometimes joined his mother at the house–playing with her children–was fathered by her husband.
“It was very difficult, strange, bizarre,” said Schwarzenegger. “I just said to myself, ‘Okay, I’m going to put this away.’”
But as Joseph got older, his features provided many hints to the affair that the Terminator star desperately tried to keep quiet.
Deliberately lying to Shriver, Schwarzenegger strategically revealed the truth the day after he ended his second term as the Governor of California.
But his confession wasn’t voluntary. Shriver, the brilliant and kind-hearted journalist, lined up some clues and confronted Patty, who reportedly broke down when asked.
And his True Lies were surfaced at a marriage counselling session.
“Maria and I went to counseling once a week,” he said in his Netflix docuseries Arnold. “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.’ And I was like–I thought my heart stopped, and then I told the truth.”
He continued, “‘Yes, Maria, Joseph is my son.’ 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?”
Shriver filed for divorce.
Describing how he lied to his wife of 25 years in his book “Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story,” Schwarzenegger also shares the reaction of his children when he told them of the affair.
“I asked them for forgiveness,” he said. “They cried. It tears your heart out.”
Speaking with CBS News in advance of his book release, Schwarzenegger said of Joseph, “The important thing that everyone should know is that I take care of him and I take care of her (Patty),” he said of the woman, whom he gifted for her retirement a $300,000 home in Bakersfield. “And I fulfill my responsibility and I’m glad to do that.”
Speaking of Joseph, who didn’t learn his dad was Mr. Universe until he was a teenager, the Total Recall star says he is a “fantastic man” who “makes me proud.”
“It was wrong what I did. 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.”
Joseph Baena
Joseph, who grew up in a humble Guatemalan home, didn’t know that Conan the Barbarian was his dad until he was 13.
Before Patty went quiet, Men’s Health reports that she said, “When (Joseph’s) grandmother sat him down to explain that Arnold Schwarzenegger was his father, he exclaimed, ‘Cool!’”
In an interview with Men’s Health, Joseph described the media circus that followed him when he learned the Commando star was his father: “I remember the day very vividly…I was in the eighth grade. Fifth or sixth period. And I get called out of class to leave. And my mom’s there, and she’s like, ‘We gotta go–everyone is finding out about you and who your father is.’” Talking about the news reporters and photographers that swarmed his house, he continued, “I’m 13. Your body’s transforming; your mind is transforming. And now my life transformed before my eyes.”
Today, Joseph is 25 and is following his father’s footsteps as an actor and bodybuilder.
In fact, Joseph–who was on the cover on Men’s Health in 2022–said the two bonded over fitness and his dad gave him “The Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding,” co-authored by Schwarzenegger. “Even though I could call him anytime, I was too proud. I went straight to the book. I wanted to figure it out myself,” Joseph tells the fitness magazine, adding that when he was about 18, he started training with his dad, and “was so nervous…I was being observant, trying to see what he was doing and the way he was acting.”
“My dad is old-school; he doesn’t believe in handouts. He believes hard work pays off, and so do I,” says Baena. “I love the word honor, and I’m very prideful in the sense that if I use my dad’s contacts or ask him for favors, I wonder what honor is that gonna bring me?”
Joseph applies the same philosophy for his acting career and has kept his real identity quiet.
“When I go to auditions, they don’t know who I am, because we don’t have the same last name. I know it’s all me.”
The young man, who’s also a realtor, has appeared in a few films with many more in production, and he also flaunted his moves in Dancing with the Stars in 2022, where he survived six episodes.
Honoring his dad, Joseph recreated the iconic “Bad to the Bone” scene from Terminator 2: Judgement Day where he plays the menacing cyborg.
Despite him being treated as an outcast by his step siblings, Joseph is unhindered and supports his father, the Predator, any chance he gets.
Appearing at the premiere of his new TV series, FUBAR, Schwarzenegger walked the red carpet with the four kids she shares with Shriver while Joseph walked it alone, and was left out of the family photo snapped at the event.
Posting a sole photo of himself at FUBAR, Joseph writes on Instagram, “I give FUBAR a 2 thumbs up!!!…In my unbiased opinion, FUBAR is a hilarious, action packed show that will have you on the edge of your seat the entire time!”
Fans immediately commented on his solo entrance. “Just started following to give you the type of support your snobby siblings choose not to.” Another shares, “Your half siblings have a lot of growing up to do! They envy you because you look exactly like your dad and they blame you for your dads infidelity.”
One person writes of the man, “You are a handsome young man and you really do look just like your father. What you also are is pure class, good for you young man. PS. for Arnold, some things are just never wrong. Look at this young mans essence. Job well done”
Joseph is level-headed and thankful to have a relationship with his dad.
“It took a little bit for me to realize that I don’t have to do what my dad did,” he says. “I don’t have to get into acting or bodybuilding. I’m very motivated and driven. I’m happy about my relationship with my dad. But I’m more happy that I am finding joy in what I’m doing and that I’m doing exactly what I’ve always dreamed about.”
Joseph Baena seems like a down-to-earth guy and it will be fun seeing where he lands in life.
What do you think of Maria Shriver handled her cheating husband?
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