Arnold Schwarzenegger and his ex-wife Maria Shriver posed together for a rare joint photograph, 15 years after an affair and secret love-child scandal upended their marriage and five years after their divorce was finalized.
The photo emerged after the former couple came together to celebrate Schwarzenegger's 79th birthday in Los Angeles last week. Their eldest daughter, Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt, shared a gallery of pictures paying tribute to her father, including one showing him seated beside Shriver, 70, on what appeared to be a recent vacation.
Shriver and Schwarzenegger married in April 1986 in Hyannis, Massachusetts, close to the Kennedy family compound. They had four children together: Katherine, 36, Christina, 35, Patrick, 32, and Christopher, 28.
Family Tribute Photos
In the newly shared image, the pair beamed while sitting side by side in winter clothing. Katherine also posted other pictures and videos of her father spanning the years, including several showing them together when she was a child.
How Schwarzenegger and Shriver Met
Shriver first rose to public attention as the niece of President John F. Kennedy and the daughter of Sargent Shriver, a longtime Democratic Party figure who led President Lyndon B. Johnson's "war on poverty" program. Schwarzenegger, born in a village near Graz, Austria, made his name as a champion bodybuilder known as the "Austrian Oak" before moving into acting.
The pair began dating in 1977, while Schwarzenegger was still involved with Beverly Hills hairdresser Sue Moray. Moray later said their relationship began with "lust at first sight" on Venice Beach and became an open arrangement in which they were "committed" while he was in Los Angeles but "free" when he left town, except that she was barred from dating other bodybuilders.
"He'd see a beautiful woman on the street or wherever he was and he'd go right up to her and say: 'Do you wanna f*** me?' His English wasn't all that great but he had that phrase down pat," Moray told the Times of London.
Over the nine years they dated, Shriver also saw off Schwarzenegger's Red Sonja co-star Brigitte Nielsen, with whom he had what Nielsen described in her memoir as an "outrageous affair."
Shriver later reflected that she had been expected to marry "someone like a John Kerry, some preppy that had gone to Harvard or Yale," but said she did not want that. "I did not like them. I had been around them my whole life," she said. Of Schwarzenegger, she said he "wanted to be a star" and that his ambition felt like "an explosion of fresh air" compared with the more serious people she knew.
The Affair Scandal
By the time they married, Schwarzenegger was a leading Hollywood star through films including Conan the Barbarian and The Terminator. The wedding was attended by relatives including John F. Kennedy Jr. and his mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The marriage appeared to endure for decades, including through Schwarzenegger's time as Governor of California.
That changed in 2011, the day after Schwarzenegger left office, when it emerged he had fathered a 13-year-old son, Joseph, with the family's housekeeper, Mildred "Patty" Baena. Until then, even Joseph did not know Schwarzenegger was his father, believing he was the son of Patty's ex-husband, Rogelio Baena.
Patty initially kept a low profile before giving an interview and photo shoot with her son to Hello! magazine. She said Joseph's reaction to learning the truth was simply, "Cool!"
Patty Baena's Account
Patty, who worked for Schwarzenegger for 20 years, said she had not known he was Joseph's father at first, but that the physical resemblance between father and son "became more apparent" as Joseph grew older. "I knew Arnold was the father, and maybe as Joseph got older and began to look like him, he wondered. But he never said anything to me," she said.
She said Shriver eventually developed suspicions of her own and confronted her "point blank" about Joseph's paternity. When Patty confessed, she said Shriver "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," Patty said, describing Schwarzenegger as a "good man" who was "suffering too." She added: "He loves Maria. I hope with time they work things out."
Divorce and Life After the Scandal
Shriver filed for divorce on July 1, 2011, weeks after the Hello! interview was published. The divorce was finalized a decade later.
The following year, Schwarzenegger began a relationship with Heather Milligan, a physical therapist 27 years his junior, and the two remain together. They met after he had shoulder surgery and was referred to Milligan on the recommendation of Sylvester Stallone, who had married Brigitte Nielsen in the 1980s shortly after Schwarzenegger's affair with her.
Joseph Baena's Bodybuilding Career
Schwarzenegger has since built a close relationship with Joseph, now 28, who bears a strong resemblance to his father and has followed him into bodybuilding. "A lot of guys struggle with trying to make their dad proud or trying to get out of their dad's shadow," Joseph told People. "But as long as you're doing what you want to do, then that all comes. Of course, maybe those guys don't have such nice dads."
Shriver's four children with Schwarzenegger have reportedly kept their distance from their half-brother. A source alleged in 2023, in comments reported by Page Six, that the siblings "don't love Joe" and "take" their feelings about their father's affair "out" on him.
