“Fatherhood is really the greatest joy,” Arnold Schwarzenegger told Men’s Health in 2018, and it’s a truth he’s lived ever since he first became a father. Though Arnold’s life is full of major milestones – winning Mr. Universe, claiming the title of Mr. Olympia seven times, serving as the governor of California from 2003 to 2011, becoming a pop culture icon with films like Conan The Barbarian, The Terminator, Predator, and Kindergarten Cop – it seems that the one thing he’s most proud of is being a dad.
“Watching all five of my kids grow into their own successful lives is fantastic,” Arnold said in that 2018 interview. “Spending time with them, working out together, answering their questions makes me so happy.” So, who are the five children that have helped Arnold be a better person?
Arnold and Maria welcomed their second child, daughter Christina Schwarzenegger, on July 23, 1991. She seemingly takes after her mother. Christina graduated from Georgetown, Maria Shriver’s alma mater, in 2013, according to Men’s Health, and she has worked as an assistant editor at Goop, the wellness and lifestyle brand launched by Gwyneth Paltrow.
Christina is more private than her other siblings, but she did have a moment in the spotlight in 2018. She teamed with her mother to produce a documentary for Netflix, Take Your Pills. It explored the use of Adderall in American society, and it was a subject that’s close to Christina’s heart. She took the drug in high school, briefly, to combat attention deficit disorder, but said she became dependent on it in college.
“You get a high from it,” she said. “But in a completely different arena, it’s very helpful obviously for people to have ADD, who struggle with their attention span. It’s a very helpful drug for those types of people. And I think if they find it helpful if they’re able to take it on an as-needed basis or the way it was prescribed by your doctor without abusing, I think that’s totally fine.”
“I learned a lot of things about myself, especially from when I was younger,” added Christina, who said making the doc brought her closer to her mother. “And it wasn’t about discovering how I learned, but more so how my brain functioned. I guess just being very open with each other has been a very bonding experience.”
Perhaps the most high-profile of Arnold and Maria’s kids is Patrick Schwarzenegger. Born on September 18, 1993, Patrick made his first on-screen appearance as “Jock Kid Game #3” in 2006’s The Benchwarmers. The acting bug quickly bit Arnold Schwarzenegger’s son, and he has since appeared in movies like Grown Ups 2, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, Echo Boomers, and Midnight Sun. He also has appeared in TV series like The Long Road Home and 2015’s Scream Queens.
“I’ve been on movie sets for as long as I can remember,” Patrick told the Irish Times in 2020, before listing off a series of Arnold’s flicks – from Terminator 3 to Around The World In 80 Days. “Obviously, a lot of my dad’s films were made when I was extremely young or not even born yet. And I’m still visiting him at work. I visited him on The Last Stand and the last Terminator film.”
Patrick graduated from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business in 2016. As a teen, he launched his clothing company, Project360, which donates a percentage of proceeds to various charities, per the Los Angeles Times. The fashion-minded Patrick also signed on as a model https://www.imgmodels.com/patrickschwarzenegger, and he’s appeared in campaigns for Tom Ford and Calvin Klein.
Patrick had a high-profile romance with Miley Cyrus from October 2014 to April 2015. As of 2021, he was still involved with Abby Champion after striking up a romance in 2016. Patrick is also active on Instagram.
While Christina Schwarzenegger is pretty low-key (compared to Patrick and Katherine), Christopher Schwarzenegger is the most chill, most private of Maria and Arnold’s four kids. Born on September 27, 1997, Christopher hasn’t stayed out of the spotlight and forged his own path in life.
While Patrick and Katherine attended USC and Christina studied at Maria’s alma mater, Christopher attended the University of Michigan. He graduated in May 2020, and his father paid tribute to his young son online.
Out of this “biggest failure” has come what has been an incredible bond between father and son. In that 2015 interview with Stern, Arnold said that he had a “fantastic” relationship with his children, including Joseph. “Joseph]’s terrific, and he totally understands the situation. So, it all has worked out… It’s a very tough situation for him. It’s a very tough situation for my kids. Very tough situation for my family. It was tough for everybody. But it has happened, and now we have to figure it out, right?”
“I love my dad!” Joseph told HollywoodLife in 2019. “We hang out all the time! He is a great father! That’s really all I have to say about him! We train together. We eat together. We do many things together. … He is a jokester! He can be intense sometimes. He knows how to get things done. If he needs to get things done, he is going to get things done. He is serious about his work and what he does.”
By no fault of his own, Joseph is the byproduct of the affair that broke up Arnold and Maria’s marriage. So, it might be understandable if the four Schwarzenegger children didn’t immediately embrace their half-brother with open arms. Katherine and Christina have “no relationship” with Joeseph, according to a 2019 Page Six report. Joseph was absent when Katherine married Chris Pratt, and he hasn’t been present in any of the major Schwarzenegger family gatherings.
That’s why many heads turned when in April 2021, Joseph was spotted having a workout session with Patrick Schwarzenegger in Santa Monica, California. The two got in some cardio at the steep stairs near the beach. They were joined by Joseph’s girlfriend, Nicky Dodaj, for this exercise excursion. It marked the first time that one of the Schwarzenegger kids publicly acknowledged Joseph and hinted that there might be a future where all five of Arnold’s children could come together as a family.
Whether or not that happens, it’s evident that Arnold loves all his children. “Kids are the next best thing after cloning—even though you realize every child has a different personality,” he told Men’s Health. “If you really want to spread your philosophy, whether it’s about giving back, fighting for fitness, or, just like my dad told me, making the world a better place than you inherited, you’d better do a good job as a parent.”