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After the story broke that Arnold Schwarzenegger fathered a love child with his housekeeper, Mildred Baena, she and her 13-year-old son went into hiding -- hoping to wait out the media storm
that followed. But now, Baena is ready to tell her side of the story, admitting that she is just as guilty for the adulterous affair as her former boss.
But Baena, 50, didn't always know that her son, Joseph, belonged to 'The Terminator.' Although, she had her suspicions when the young boy began to resemble his Austrian father.
"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 told Hello! magazine. "I knew Arnold was the father, and maybe as Joseph got older and began to look like him, [Arnold] wondered. But he never said anything to me."
Unfortunately it wasn't only Schwarzenegger and Baena that had suspicions that their affair could have resulted in a child. The former governor's wife, Maria Shriver, alluded to Baena that she also noticed the similarities between Joseph and his biological father, her husband.
"She would say things like, 'I'm here if you need to talk,'" Baena recalls. "Finally, she asked point blank. Maria asked me directly if Joseph was Arnold's son, and I just broke down. I dropped to my knees and I was crying, saying that yes he was and I was so sorry."
But Baena was not confronted with your average rage-filled wife, having just discovered that her husband classically cheated on her with the family's housekeeper of twenty years.
"She was so strong," Baena said. "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."
Although the news was difficult for Shriver to digest, Baena's son had a much different reaction. When she explained to him, at the age of 13, that Schwarzenegger was his biological father, Joseph simply responded, "Cool."
Shriver recognized that her heartbreak could not get in the way of doing what was best for her husband's son.
"Since I was retiring soon, I said I would pack and leave right away," Baena said of her initial thought to immediately leave the Schwarzenegger household. "But [Shriver] said to stay until after the holidays."
Taking responsibility for her role in devastating a family, Baena hopes that her former employer and lover will be able to reconcile with his wife.
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