Hashing out the past. While Arnold Schwarzenegger has been candid about the affair that led to his divorce from Maria Shriver, his family hasn’t been as open.

Arnold Schwarzenegger at Jamie Lee Curtis Hand and Feet ImprintingMatt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock

The Terminator actor and the journalist — who share children Katherine, Christina, Patrick and Christopher — called it quits in 2011 after 25 years of marriage. At the time, Shriver learned that her then-husband fathered a child, Joseph Baena, with their longtime housekeeper, Mildred Baena. As news broke of the former governor’s infidelity, he publicly apologized for his actions.

“There are no excuses and I take full responsibility for the hurt I have caused,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I have apologized to Maria, my children and my family. I am truly sorry.”

Shriver, for her part, revealed more than a decade later she sought out help from a convent following her split from Schwarzenegger.

“The reverent mother there said to me at the very end, she said, ‘I think you came here looking for permission,’” the I’ve Been Thinking author said to Hoda Kotb during a February 2023 appearance on her “Making Space” podcast.

“I felt like I was in a scene out of the Sound of Music. She goes, ‘You can’t come live here … but you do have permission to go out and become Maria.’ I was sobbing. I was like, ‘Who is that?’”

Us Weekly confirmed in December 2021 — 10 years after their initial split — that the twosome finalized their divorce.

Despite the messy separation, the Predator star and Shriver navigated their new normal as coparents to their four children. Schwarzenegger later joked about how he and his ex-wife deserved an Oscar for their efforts to maintain a healthy dynamic for their kids.

“We are very proud of the way we raised our kids,” he recalled to The Hollywood Reporter in May 2023. “Even though we had this drama, we did Easter together, Mother’s Day together, the Christmases together, all birthdays — everything together.”

While he maintained a close bond with his and Shriver’s children, it took a little longer for the True Lies actor and Joseph to form a strong connection. Joseph, for his part, confessed that he was often “nervous” that Schwarzenegger would “think bad of” him at first.

“[I didn’t want him to] be like, ‘What the heck is this guy doing? He’s just partying all the time,’” the Dancing With the Stars alum said during a January 2022 episode of the “Unwaxed” podcast.

Keep scrolling to see what Schwarzenegger and his family have said about his affair over the years:

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Arnold Schwarzenegger

In his 2023 Netflix docuseries, Arnold, the Kindergarten Cop actor opened up about the scandal and the moment he came clean to Shriver about the affair during a couples counseling session.

“I think that I have caused enough pain for my family because of my f–k up,” he said. “Everyone had to suffer. Maria had to suffer. The kids had to suffer. Joseph. His mother. Everyone. … I am going to have to live with it the rest of my life.”

Despite referring to his affair as a mistake, Schwarzenegger made it clear that he was “proud” of his “fantastic” son Joseph.

“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,” he added. “I love him and he has turned out to be an extraordinary young man.”

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Maria Shriver

“I think I started feeling like I had the freedom or the permission [to speak my truth] when my marriage ended,” the former Dateline correspondent told Kotb in February 2023.

“At first, felt like, ‘Oh, I better go and figure out what is the truth.’ One of the things I did is [I] went to a convent, a cloistered convent.”

Shriver explained that she chose to visit the church to “be in silence and look for advice” amid the scandal. While talking to the reverent mother at the time, the former first lady of California recalled sobbing after the church figure told her it was OK to be herself.

“I had never given myself permission to feel, to be vulnerable, to be weak, to be brought to my knees,” she confessed.\

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Katherine Schwarzenegger

“This is definitely not easy, but I appreciate your love and support as I begin to heal and move forward in life,” the Rock What You Got author wrote via Twitter in 2011. “I will always love my family.”

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Joseph Baena

“My relationship with my dad, it took a little while for me and him to get really close and just [feel] like I can joke around with him and talk about anything,” the Los Angeles native said in January 2022. “Now it’s awesome. I’m so close to my dad, and we joke about everything.”