14 DAY TRIAL // For those wondering how it was possible for Arnold Schwarzenegger to keep the existence of his 13-year-old illegitimate son a secret for so long, only to have the story blow up in the media the other week, we may have an answer: it was his wife Maria Shriver who leaked it to get her revenge.
Since the scandal broke in the press, countless fans have been asking how Arnold could conceal the existence of his son and mistress for so many years – until now, when he apparently lost all control.
As it turns out, it wasn’t Arnold who lost control but Maria, the wife he’s now separated from precisely because of this scandal, TMZ reports.
Sources close to the former couple are telling the e-zine that Maria found out about the child and the mistress (who, ironically, had lived in the same house as the Schwarzenegger family for two decades), and got so upset that she decided to blow the cover on everything.
Being so upset, she thought going to the media with the story would be the best way to get her revenge on Arnold but, luckily, she told her friends before that and they managed to stop her.
“TMZ has new information from sources connected to Maria. We’re told when Maria found out that Arnold was the father of Mildred Patty Baena’s son, she was ‘hysterical’ and wanted to hold a news conference blowing the lid off the scandal,” TMZ says.
She went to some of her most trusted friends for help, and they got to talk her out of going to the press – by agreeing instead to leak the story to two major media outlets.
“We’re told Maria’s friends talked her off a ledge and a plan was eventually hatched to leak the details to the LA Times and TMZ,” the e-zine says.
“And we have new information about when Maria found out about the baby. Now we’re told Maria learned about Arnold’s love child in late April or very early May,” TMZ adds.
This would seem to confirm earlier reports that Maria wanted out of the marriage, having come to the conclusion that there was no room for improvement anymore, and that this was the kick she needed to take the final step and move out of the house.