After weeks of evading the paparazzi, Mildred Baena breaks her silence to Hello! about her affair with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The former California governor's mistress also talks about coming clean about their love child to Maria Shriver.
Apparently Shriver took the news that eventually ruptured her over two decade relationship with Schwarzenegger surprisingly well.
Also read: Arnold Schwarzenegger Doesn't Get It, Tells Friends He Wants Maria Back
"She was so strong. She cried with me and told me to get off my knees. We held each other and I told her it wasn’t Arnie’s fault, that it takes two,” Baena tells Hello!
Likely paid for her revelations, Baena and son (whose name Joseph, she revealed to the gossip magazine) also pose for a glossy picture. Based on the photographic evidence, he takes after dad.
It was those similarities that led Baena, who worked in the Schwarzenegger household as part of the family's domestic staff, to realize that her boss was Joseph's father. She was married at time of conception.
“It was as Joseph grew and I started to see the resemblance that I wondered – but It became more apparent as time went on,” Baena says.
She also suggested that Arnold may have suspected the same — and that Maria "had started to put two and two together."
There's a silver lining to this tabloid tale. Yes, the Schwarzenegger's marriage collapsed, upending Arnold's movie career and any future political ambitions with the news of his illegitimate child, but it turns out that Joseph was pretty psyched to find out about his dad.
"Cool!" he purportedly exclaimed on hearing the news last year.
Cool indeed, Joseph. Next up: years of therapy.
Photo courtesy of Hello!