Maria Shriver wasn’t the only person kept in the dark about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s love child — the boy himself never knew his father was the Terminator.
Arnold baby mama Mildred “Patty” Baena never told the child — now 13 — that the “True Lies” star was his dad, even though Arnold showered him with gifts and put a down payment on his family’s home, a source close to Baena’s family said.
The boy’s Bakersfield neighbors said he would even refer to Baena’s current beau, Alex Aguiar, as his dad.
“He had no idea” about the truth, the source said.
The “Kindergarten Cop” star was forced to humiliatingly admit to fathering a child out of wedlock this week. Before then, Baena’s close family didn’t even know who the boy’s dad was, including her sister, Miriam Peña.
The family’s lack of knowledge was especially shocking since both Peña and Baena’s mother, Evelyn Peña, 76, also worked for Arnold. Miriam’s family says she still works for Arnold, even after the revelations.
The baby mama’s family is mostly upset with Patty — and feels sympathy not for her, but for Shriver.
“Maria would always make sure to help us, even with little things, gifts, Christmas stuff, things like that, and now we end up making her go through this crap because of Patty. It’s not cool,” the family source said. “The family is not happy with Patty right now because she never told us or warned us and now we have to deal with all this attention.”
Most relatives presume the boy now knows the truth, but they are not sure what Baena has told the boy about his parentage since this week’s stunning news broke.
While Baena failed to tell the boy and her family about the youngster’s real dad, the moon-faced maid did tell Arnold he was the dad while the boy was still a toddler.
The boy was born in October 1997, five days after Arnold’s youngest son with Shriver, Christopher, was born.
The maid and the muscleman reportedly had a tawdry affair, which included regular sex and randy romps in Arnold’s marital bed.
After learning he was the boy’s true father, Arnold showered him with gifts.
The affair finally came to light sometime after Arnold stepped down as California governor, when Shriver confronted the love-making maid.
Baena broke down and admitted to everything. The Kennedy clan member then confronted her horny hubby and promptly separated from him.
Meanwhile yesterday, sources close to Baena’s family told The London Sun that Arnold also groped the mother and sister of his love child’s mom while they were working for him.
“He would touch all their backsides while they were doing the housework,” the sources claimed to the paper. “He flirted with all of them, even the mother.”
Reps for Arnold did not immediately return a request for comment last night.
Pumping up laugh track
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s baby-mama melodrama had late-night comedians kicking into high gear. Here’s a sampling of some their sharpest Governator gags:
JAY LENO:
* “He kept this hidden for over a decade, which is pretty shocking. I had no idea he was that good an actor.”
* “Arnold kept this secret for more than 10 years. You know how he did it? He moved the woman and child into an apartment right down the street from the Pakistani military academy.”
* “This explains why he never went to any USC games as governor. He’s not a fan of Trojans.”
CONAN O’BRIEN
* “Arnold Schwarzenegger secretly fathered a child outside of his marriage 10 years ago. He told his wife at the time, but it took 10 years for her to figure out what he was saying.”
JIMMY KIMMEL
* “Since Schwarzenegger’s left office he’s been working on an animated show, a cartoon about himself. What’s the point of a cartoon Arnold Schwarzenegger. How much more of a cartoon can he be? The original pitch for the show was: Arnold leads a double life so secret even Maria and his kids don’t know. It’s based on a true story.”
CRAIG FERGUSON
* “Arnold Schwarzenegger fathered a love child . . . He’s been taking care of the child financially, providing health care and education – the same stuff he took from every other child while he was governor of California.”
Additional reporting by Helen Kumari