The hornet’s nest was kicked on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 78th birthday, causing some social media users to dredge up his adulterous past. “The Terminator” actor celebrated another year of life on July 30.
Well wishes from fans poured in across the web, including on Instagram, where his daughter, Katherine Schwarzenegger’s, heartfelt post doted on years of happy memories.
She shared a carousel of photos — one of her as a child as she and the former bodybuilder were horseback riding, another of her and the star in recent years, a happy family snapshot of the Hollywood A-lister with his daughter, his ex-wife Maria Shriver, and sons Patrick and Christopher Schwarzenegger, and more.
In the caption, she wrote, “Happy birthday daddy! King opa! We love you!” The comments prompted reactions such as “These pictures are so great” and “Daddy/daughter goals.” For other onlookers, the images were amiss.
“This is very hard for me to look at. This man cheated on his pure and loving family,” wrote one person resurfacing Arnold’s affair with former housekeeper Mildred Baena in 1996. The infidelity led to the birth of his fifth child, son Joseph Baena, and fractured his marriage to Maria.
She filed for divorce in 2011 after 25 years as husband and wife. It was finalized in 2021. A second user commented, “I’d be distant if my parent did what he did.” A third person remarked, “Mommy’s not gonna like the 3 pic,” where the exes stand side-by-side in the group shot with their four kids.
A fourth person zoomed in on the family moment when they typed, “You’re missing a brother in those pics.” In 2023, a purported Page Six source alleged, “The other kids don’t love Joe. It’s a shame as he’s a really good kid, and Arnold has always treated him like all his other kids — very fairly. But for whatever reason, the other kids take [the affair] out on Joe.”
The bodybuilding enthusiast was most recently spotted at the “Fubar” premiere, starring Arnold, in June. Also in attendance were his half-siblings, though none of them posed for photos with him on the red carpet.
Arnold, however, split his time in front of the camera by doing solo shots and photos with his eldest kids together, as well as poses with just him and Joseph.
