Arnold Schwarzenegger Refused to Support Son After Graduation

Arnold Schwarzenegger may be The Terminator, the former Governor of California, and seven-time Mr. Olympia – but that doesn’t mean his children get an easy break.

In fact, one of the 75-year-old’s sons, Joseph Baena, has revealed that Schwarzenegger – who had Baena following an affair with his housekeeper Mildred Baena – chose to stop financially supporting him after he graduated college.

The 25-year-old discovered that he was the son of the bodybuilding legend back in 2011 from his grandmother, and has since said that the revelation “transformed” his life.

Appearing on the Unwaxed podcast – hosted by two of Sylvester Stallone’s daughters, Sophia and Sistine – Baena stated: “I’m really grateful that my dad helped me get through college. But right when college was done, it was just like, ‘You go. You’re on your own.’ I was like, ‘Oh, s**t’.”

Baena then added that he became a realtor to support himself when finishing college. Though, he does dream of becoming an actor like his action star father.

“I needed a job, and I was not getting any of the acting roles that I thought I was going to get,” he said. “I was like, ‘I need to do something’, so I started interning at this real estate company.”

As it would turn out, Baena ended up loving the job, realizing that it was his passion. Taking to Instagram, Baena posted a photo after he’d sold his first property in Santa Monica.

Baena has managed to score some acting roles, with his most recent being in the flick Bully High – which was released on the streaming platform Tubi in late 2022. Though, the young actor did reveal to PEOPLE that he doesn’t like to ask his dad acting advice, saying that he’d much rather figure it out on his own.

“The main thing is just the work, putting in the work, putting in the reps,” Baena says is the main advice Schwarzenegger has given him about his acting career. He then explained that “90 percent of the time, I want to figure it out on my own. I want to work hard and put in the reps and work on my craft my own.

“There’s no shortcuts in this. There’s no shortcuts in acting, and in really anything.”

Baena continued: “And so, that’s what I want to get out of it is I want it to be my hard work and my ambition that gets me to that success. So it’s very minimal that I go to him and ask for advice because I want to figure it out on my own.”

As well as figuring things out for himself, Baena revealed that he made the decision not to use his father’s last name. “My dad is old-school; he doesn’t believe in handouts. He believes hard work pays off, and so do I,” he stated.

“When I go to auditions, they don’t know who I am because we don’t have the same last name,” he continued, adding that when he’s landed roles he knows that “it’s all me.”

Should the rest of Hollywood be taking a leaf out of Schwarzenegger’s book? Tell us what you think below!