Arnold Schwarzenegger’s son Joseph has revealed why he has not taken his father’s surname.
Joseph Baena has known The Terminator actor is his father for over a decade, but he has chosen to preserve his mother’s maiden name as his surname.
Schwarzenegger has four children with previous girlfriend Maria Shriver; but, just over ten years ago, it was revealed that he had produced another kid with his family housekeeper, Mildred Baena.
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Joseph was about 13 years old when he discovered Schwarzenegger was his father; the star had an affair with Baena in 1996 while still married to Shriver.
Despite Joseph and Schwarzenegger’s friendship, the now-26-year-old has never adopted his father’s surname, telling Inside Edition in 2022 that he ‘already [has] a last name’ and does not ‘have a problem’ with it, but ‘like[s]’ it.
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However, there is a deeper purpose to Joseph’s refusal to switch Baena for Schwarzenegger, as he revealed in an interview with Good Morning Britain’s Susanna Reid and Ed Balls.
In an interview on the ITV daytime show, Joseph stated that the’main factor’ keeping him from changing his surname to his father’s is that he’s ‘trying to achieve things on [his] own’.
“And pursue my career with my will, my determination and my work ethic,” he went on to say. “It’s just doing everything through me.”
Joseph added that his family is “very big on supporting from afar and not being so hands on,” which he’really appreciates’.
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He went on to say, “I think it is incredibly vital for a man to grow up and sort things out on his own.
“So that’s what I’ve been doing, and it’s been effective thus far. I’ve been working very hard.
Despite not wishing to take his father’s surname, Joseph has followed in Schwarzenegger’s footsteps by becoming a bodybuilder and starring in the next American action film Gunner – on top of a’side hustle’ of property sales.
Joseph concluded: “Some youngsters grow up wanting to be firefighters or astronauts, but I have always liked film and aspired to be an actor.
“It’s just the way the cards have fallen. We happen to do and enjoy many of the same things.
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