He had a love child with the family maid and lied about it for years, but Arnold Schwarzenegger still hopes he can rebuild his relationship with estranged wife Maria Shriver.
Arnold, 65, has given a candid interview condemning his infidelity, praising his “fantastic” wife and revealing his desire to win her back.
“It was a situation where I couldn’t even blame anybody else but myself, because my wife was a fantastic wife,” Arnold told US TV show Hannity while promoting his new memoir Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story.
“She was a great friend, she was a great adviser, everything, great mother. I mean, my kids were fantastic. The thing that I cherished the most, I destroyed by some stupid things that I’ve done.
“For me, it’s important to kind of rebuild again, get the trust back with the kids, with my wife.”
Arnold said he was confident he and Maria would reconcile “eventually” but conceded it would probably take a few months for her to get over his betrayal.
“It takes a lot of time to heal those wounds and to trust each other again,” he said. “But, you know, I will make every effort.”
Maria, 56, filed for divorce in July 2011, two months after Arnold’s affair with the family’s long-term housekeeper Mildred Baena — which resulted in the birth of son Joseph, now 15 — was revealed.
They have been married for 25 years and have four children together, Katherine, 22, Christina, 21, Patrick, 19, and Christopher, 15.
