Joseph Baena, 24, is opening up about how being the son of Arnold Schwarzenegger has affected his life, in his latest interview, which took place on the of the Unwaxed podcast hosted by sisters Sophia and Sistine Stallone. The hunk, who was born to the 74-year-old actor and his former housekeeper Mildred Patricia Baena during his marriage to Maria Shriver in Oct. 1997, admitted he was “nervous” to create a bond with his dad at first because he had grown up around his mom. Arnold reportedly didn’t find out about Joseph until he was around eight-years-old, so their relationship started later than it normally would.
“I also have to point out that with my relationship with my dad it took a little while for me and him to get really close and just [feel] like I can joke around with him and talk about anything,” Joseph told Sophia and Sistine, who are the daughters of Sylvester Stallone, on the episode of the podcast.
“I grew up with my mom and I was always nervous and I didn’t want him to think bad of me and be like, ‘What the heck is this guy doing? He’s just partying all the time,'” he continued. “Now it’s like awesome. I’m so close to my dad and we joke about everything.”
Joseph, who followed in his dad’s footsteps through working out, went on to say that because of his close relationship to the Terminator star, he never got nervous when doing special things like introducing girlfriends to him. “It was fine,” he said about the past introductions before revealing Arnold “always wants to hear about the drama. He’s like, ‘Tell me everything, tell me about the drama, tell me about the girls.'”
In addition to spending quality time at the gym with Arnold, Joseph has started acting, but he hasn’t used the Schwarzenegger last name and has no plans to. “I never had the Schwarzenegger name. I think really the thing is that I haven’t focused on changing it,” he explained. “I’m doing my own thing. I haven’t thought of it that much. I have a last name already. I’m already doing so much and succeeding and moving forward with my goals. That’s the last thing on my mind.”
Check out Joseph’s full interview in the video above.