Arnold Schwarzenegger’s dad beat him with a belt when he was a boy – because he thought he was gay.

The love-cheat revealed on US TV: “He ran after me with a belt and beat me.”

And the Terminator star said his mum asked a doctor for help because she was worried there was “something off”.

Arnie, who admit-ted he betrayed wife Maria Shriver, 56, with a string of other women, said: “I don’t know if mum thought I was gay, or if she just thought there was something off. And ‘let’s catch it early’.

“She asked the doctor, ‘Can you help me? I don’t know if there’s something wrong with my son because his wall is full of naked men.

"All of Arnold’s friends have pictures of girls above their bed. And Arnold has no girls.’”

The superstar, 65, also revealed that he paid tens of thousands of dollars to his housekeeper Mildred “Patty” Baena, 51, when he learned she was the mother of his love child Joseph, now 15 – but denied that he gave her hush-money.

Arnie, who was promoting his memoirs Total Recall on 60 Minutes, was asked if his flings with Baena and Hollywood star Brigitte Nielsen, 49, were his only slip-ups during his marriage.

The Predator star confessed: “No, I had others. I did feel bad about it. They were mistakes. This is my failure. My screw-ups. It’s something that’s between Maria and me. She knew. I’m not perfect.”

(Image: X17)

Arnie kept Joseph secret from Maria when he was California governor, but came clean during marriage counselling last spring.

He claimed he only discovered Joseph was his son when he was seven.

The star said: “He started looking like me and I kind of got it. I put the things together.”

Related video - Arnold Schwarzenegger's own SON relives his dad's classic scene from The Terminator