Millions of boys around the world grew up imitating the bodybuilding idol Arnold Schwarzenegger. However, none of Arnold’s four legitimate children followed in their legendary father’s footsteps.
The elderly Schwarzenegger’s illegitimate son by his housekeeper was a balm for his soul. Of course! After all, Joseph Baena, unlike his legitimate children, is the spitting image of his father, and he’s constantly working out.
Arnold was always very popular with women and wasn’t shy about having affairs, even on set. In 1986, Schwarzenegger married journalist Maria Shriver, the niece of the famous US President John F. Kennedy. In 1989, Maria gave birth to their daughter Katherine, followed by Christina, Patrick, and Christopher.
Rumors about Arnold’s extramarital affairs occasionally surfaced in the press, but Maria preferred to turn a blind eye.
The final straw for his wife was a statement from their housekeeper, Mildred Baena. She firmly insisted that her son, Joseph, was Arnold’s child. It turned out that Schwarzenegger had been having an affair with Mildred for approximately 10 years. Little Joe spent a lot of time at the actor’s house and was friends with his children. But unlike them, he saw Arnold as a role model.
When the boy began to turn into a Schwarzenegger carbon copy, Mildred realized everything and, plucking up the courage, told her son the truth. In response, Joseph simply exclaimed, “Cool!”
Arnold didn’t deny it and accepted the boy, although this cost him his wife after 25 years of marriage and the negative attitudes of his children. Schwarzenegger paid off all of Mildred’s debts, paid for Joseph’s education at a prestigious university, and even built a gym in his home.
Arnold clearly appreciated his son’s passion for bodybuilding, which his other children hadn’t. Moreover, his legitimate heirs are much less physically reminiscent of Arnold than Joseph.
Schwarzenegger communicates with Joseph as often as he does with his own children and even goes to the gym with him sometimes.
“Joseph is a wonderful guy, I love him very much. He understands the situation we’re all in and carries himself with dignity. I like that,” Arnold once said.
Joseph loved sports since childhood and, by his teens, already had a beautiful, toned physique. A few years ago, he appeared in a scene from the online remake of Terminator 2.
But his real popularity came when he began posting photos on Instagram in the same poses Arnold had posed in posters almost half a century earlier. Users were amazed by the resemblance between father and son.
They left enthusiastic comments: “This is Arnie’s real son!”, “Arnie was cloned!”, “Your father must be proud.”
Arnold can now rest easy: his family does have a successor. And even though the guy has a different last name, he’s a true Schwarzenegger.
