BAKERSFIELD—The media spotlight turned Wednesday on the mystery woman with whom Arnold Schwarzenegger fathered a love child, kept secret by the movie star turned politician for over a decade.
Reports identified her as Mildred Patricia Baena, who was a housekeeper for Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver for two decades before retiring in recent months.
The former California governor admitted Tuesday to fathering a child with a staff member over a decade ago, but only told Shriver after he left office in January, triggering their separation announced last week.
Media including the TMZ celebrity news website identified her as Baena, publishing multiple photographs and triggering a journalistic manhunt to find the woman herself.
She was tracked down to her home in Bakersfield, a city 100 miles north of Los Angeles, but there was no sign of life in her single-story house where a media camp quickly developed.
Schwarzenegger and Shriver announced their separation last week, four months after the former “Terminator” star left political office.
They gave no reason for the split at the time, but on Tuesday Arnie revealed he had told his wife about the child he had fathered with another woman, a long-term member of the couple’s household staff.
The former bodybuilder’s estranged wife Shriver, a daughter of the Kennedy political dynasty, issued a statement Tuesday asking for privacy during a “painful and heartbreaking time.”
It is not the first time the marriage has been strained by Schwarzenegger’s relations with other women: it came under the spotlight notably during the 2003 election which he won, amid reports of his history of groping women.
The couple, who met in 1977 and married in 1986, have four children, aged between 14 and 21.
Since January Schwarzenegger has started to return to show business, unveiling plans for a “Governator” comic book and animated TV show, and reportedly signing for a new film in the “Terminator” series.