Mr. Schwarzenegger?s advisers had heard it. So had top aides to Mr. Davis, whom Mr. Schwarzenegger would go on to unseat. But in the closing days of what was a circus of a campaign, the rumors got pushed aside as Mr. Schwarzenegger dealt with a barrage of seemingly more credible allegations that he had groped and molested women during his years as a movie star, charges that Ms. Shriver battled back forcefully, contributing in large part to his victory.
In fact, Mr. Schwarzenegger acknowledged on Tuesday, he had fathered a child with a member of his household staff a few years before running for office, a secret that he said he hid from his wife and that aides said he kept from them. Through much of her pregnancy and for the eight years that Mr. Schwarzenegger served as one of the highest-profile governors in the nation, the woman continued to work in the couple?s home. Some of their friends, looking back, said they now believe the child was an occasional presence in the house in the gated community at the end of Mandeville Canyon Road.
That deception by Mr. Schwarzenegger ended Monday night when the governor, responding to an inquiry from The Los Angeles Times, released a statement acknowledging his child. Ms. Shriver ? his wife of 25 years, a former television news correspondent and a member of the Kennedy family ? issued her own statement Tuesday reflecting what her friends described as the devastating and utterly shocking collapse of a marriage that had captured national attention. Ms. Shriver had moved out of the house and into a Beverly Hills hotel earlier this year.
?As a mother, my concern is for the children,? she said. ?I ask for compassion, respect and privacy as my children and I try to rebuild our lives and heal. I will have no further comment.?
The family scandal unfolded in real time on social networks. One of their sons, Patrick, 17, posted his distress on his Twitter account, though he presented his name as Patrick Shriver, rather than Patrick Schwarzenegger. ?Some days you feel? terrible, he wrote, borrowing lyrics from a Fort Minor song, including a profanity to convey that feeling. He added, ?Some days you want to quit and just be normal for a bit, yet I love my family till death do us apart.?
His sister Katherine, who is 21, wrote: ?This is definitely not easy but I appreciate your love and support as I begin to heal and move forward.?
The disclosure set off a clamor in a city that has always been intrigued by the celebrity wattage produced by this marriage of show business and politics. Reporters and camera crews crowded around the looming stone gates near the couple?s home, craning for a glimpse of the former governor. Mr. Schwarzenegger and Ms. Shriver found themselves back in the sights of two Web sites that have feasted on their marriage before: TMZ and Gawker.
?The Schwarzenegger love child scandal has arrived,? Gawker announced.
Associates of Mr. Schwarzenegger and Ms. Shriver, pointing to the request for privacy, offered only scant details. The child was said to be a boy, about 14 years old. Several friends said the mother was working around the house, pregnant, at the same time that Ms. Shriver was pregnant with the youngest of the couple?s four children, Christopher, who is 13. The woman and the child did not live in the house.
By every account, Mr. Schwarzenegger made no mention of the situation to Ms. Shriver or to the team of political consultants he brought in during the 2003 recall election against Mr. Davis, and in the re-election campaign in 2006.
Friends of both Mr. Schwarzenegger and Ms. Shriver expressed astonishment not only at his actions, but also that he had eluded detection by the public and his family over the course of his very public life. Mr. Schwarzenegger told his wife about the affair only late last year, at the end of his public service career, and shortly after the mother of his son left the job with severance after working for the family for 20 years.