Arnold Schwarzenegger Talks About His Affair in '60 Minutes' Interview

Arnold Schwarzenegger is back. In a memoir coming out on Monday, "Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story," he tells about the longtime affair with a household employee that led to a secret son and to his separation from Maria Shriver.

In his first interview since the scandal went public, the former “Governator”of California discussed the scandal with Lesley Stahl on "60 Minutes," calling his affair “the stupidest thing I've done in the whole relationship.”

In a preview clip of the interview, Stahl points out what Shriver sacrificed for the star. "She gave up her television career for you. I mean, wow! Was this just the most unbelievable act of betrayal to Maria?"

Schwarzenegger replies, "I think it was the stupidest thing I've done in the whole relationship. It was terrible. I inflicted tremendous pain on Maria and unbelievable pain on the kids."

 

Shriver did not comment to "60 Minutes" about the interview or the book, which Schwarzenegger says she has not read.

When asked whether Shriver knows that the book contains details of his affair with Mildred Baena, the family's housekeeper, and they son they had, Joseph, now 14, Schwarzenegger replies, "She knows that it's about my whole life, and that I would not write a book and kind of leave out that part and make people feel like, 'Well, wait a minute. Are we just getting a book about his success stories and not talk about his failures?' ... I wanted to write a book about me."

On "CBS This Morning," Stahl gave her opinion of why the "Expendables" star went public: "He's trying to get a fourth act. He's the body builder, the actor, the politician. He's working on what's next . I think when he started writing the book he thought this would help whatever is next. and then the scandal became public. He was basically forced to write about it."

The interview airs on "60 Minutes" this Sunday.