Katherine Schwarzenegger wanted her dad, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to blend in at the school drop-off loop.
During an appearance on “The Nikki and Brie Show,” the mom of two recalled the moment she realized that her upbringing was a bit “different” than most of the kids her age.
“I remember the only time really realizing like, ‘Okay, this is different,’ because my dad would drop us off at school in a Hummer that had no windows, no doors and no roof — and I was mortified,” Katherine, 33, explained.
“He would pull up to carpool and I was [like], ‘Can you please drop me off down the street? Please, I’m so embarrassed. Can we please just take the minivan? Like, this is not my vibe. I just don’t like this at all,'” she continued.
Eventually, Katherine learned to embrace her dad’s fame once it became cool amongst her peers.
“And then as I got older, the boys in my grade became much more interested in my dad. That was the time where I was like, ‘Okay, this is different for me.'”
Arnold, 75, shares four kids with ex-wife Maria Shriver: Katherine, Christina, 31, Patrick, 29, and Christopher, 25. He is also a father to son Joseph, 25, whom he welcomed with his former housekeeper, Mildred Baena.
In his new Netflix docuseries, “Arnold,” the body builder-turned-actor opened up about how fatherhood changed him.
“Becoming a father is a whole new ball game. People talk about it a lot but you have no understanding what they’re talking about,” he explained.
“When Katherine was born, there were tears running down my eyes. I was just so emotional about this life that I have just created with Maria and you realize this is a whole other world,” the “Terminator” star recalled. “It was staggering, what joy they brought to us.”
Yet when Katherine was 21, her parents — who married in 1986 — split after Arnold came clean about his 1996 affair with Baena.
“[The divorce] was very, very difficult in the beginning,” the former governor of California recently told the Hollywood Reporter of his “f–k-up.”
“Eventually, you move on. … She and I are really good friends and very close, and we are very proud of the way we raised our kids.”
Despite their divorce, which was finalized in 2021, the exes remained committed to still doing “everything together” as a family — including major holidays.
“If there’s Oscars for how to handle divorce, Maria and I should get it for having the least amount of impact on the kids,” he joked. “The sweetness and kindness you see in them, that’s from my wife. The discipline and work ethic is from me.”
