This Wednesday, June 7, Arnold arrives on Netflix, a documentary series focused on the figure of Arnold Schwarzenegger that investigates, with the voice of the protagonist himself as a guide, in the eclectic past of the Austrian superstar.
In his series, the 75-year-old actor does not avoid talking about what he considers one of the biggest failures of his life: having been unfaithful to his wife, Maria Shriver, for years with her housekeeper.
One of the strongest moments in Schwarzenegger's story has to do with the day he confessed to Shriver that he had had a child with Mildred Baena. The remembrance of this event is, without a doubt, one of the key moments of the documentary.
Arnold, Schwarzenegger's biographical series, has 3 chapters.
Arnold's biggest failure
"Maria and I went to therapy once a week. In one of the sessions the counselor said: 'I think today Maria wants to be very specific about something. He wants to know if you are Joseph's father.' I thought my heart had stopped, and then I told the truth. 'Yes, Mary, Joseph is my son.' She was devastated by that," Schwarzenegger says.
The niece of former President John F. Kennedy and the actor met in 1977 during a tennis match. They married in 1985. They were together until 2011 and in between they had 4 children: Katherine, Christina, Patrick and Christopher.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver in 2006. Photo: REUTERS
The year of their separation it was known that one of the reasons for the break was that Arnold had had an "affair" with his housekeeper, Mildred Baena, in 1996.
So secret and extensive was the bond between the two that it took Maria years to learn that Schwarzenegger and Baena had had a child in 1997.
One of the photos of Mildred Baena published by the US media.
While it was always suspected that it could be the actor's, at first the Schwarzenegger family believed that the child, named Joseph, was the son of Rogelio, Baena's husband. What ended up giving Arnold and Mildred away was that the little boy, as he grew, looked more and more like his biological father.
"I had an affair in '96. At first I didn't know. The older he (Joseph) got, the clearer he became, and then I wondered how I could keep it a secret. How do you keep it a secret?" says Arnold.
Maria and Schwarzenegger made their millionaire divorce official in 2021. They currently get along well and are proud of how they raised their children.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Joseph Baena, who uses his mother's surname.
On the other hand, Mildred separated from Rogelio and lives with Joseph in a house that Arnold bought them in 2010. He gets along very well with his father, but not with his brothers.
"I'm going to have to live with it for the rest of my life. People will remember my successes and also my failures. This is a big failure. I had failures in the past in my career, but this is a totally different ball game."
Arnold with Katherine (left) and Christine before a speech in California. Photo: EFE
He concludes: "What I did was wrong. But I don't want to make Joseph feel that he is not welcome in this world, because he is very welcome in this world. I love him and he has become an extraordinary young man."
The documentary
Arnold is coming to Netflix on Wednesday, June 7. It is a documentary miniseries of 3 chapters narrated by the actor.
In the episodes, Schwarzenegger delves into the most important moments of his life. It goes from the time he was a bodybuilder to when he won the governorship of California.
Also, as we already anticipated, he delves into the controversies that marked his career.
Arnold's arrival occurs in the context of a link between the actor and Netflix that led to the first series in history to star him, Fubar.
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