Arnold Schwarzenegger wishes he could go back in time to stop himself having an affair.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger

The 69-year-old actor's marriage to Maria Shriver - with whom he has children Katherine, 27, Christina, 25, Patrick, 23, and 19-year-old Christopher - broke down in 2011 when he admitted he had fathered a child, Joseph, then 14, with their maid Mildred Baena, and while he knows he can't change the past, he is still trying to move on from his mistake.

He told Men's Journal: "You do think about it every so often. And I can beat myself up as much as I want -- it's not gonna change the situation. So the key thing is, how do you move forward? How do you have a great relationship with your kids?

"You can't go back -- if I could, in reality, be Terminator, of course I would go back in time and would say, 'Arnold ... no.'

"You know, it's always easy to be smart in hindsight. That's not the way it works."

The 'Terminator' actor also opened up about being beaten by his father, Gustav, when he was younger, but insists he doesn't feel like he was singled out and thinks his dad acted the way he did because he was still traumatised from World War II, in which he suffered a spinal wound.

He said: "Those who were in the war were affected deeply, not just because they lost but also because of the tremendous amount of punishment that a man goes through in those battles.

"What happened to me happened to other kids.

"I didn't feel like, 'Oh, I'm getting treated differently.' "

While Arnold would turn back time if he could, he previously insisted he didn't regret any of the mistakes he's made in his life.

Asked if he'd do anything differently if he could go back in time, he said: "I don't know if I would change anything. I'd leave it alone, even with the mistakes I made.

"Overall - even with the failures - my life has been blessed and I am a happy person and I wouldn't change my life with anyone else's."

Instead, the former 'Celebrity Apprentice' host - who is now dating Heather Milligan - tries to learn from his mistakes.

He added: "I've learned to be positive; and to get up and make sure that you undo as much of the damage that you can and that you think twice before you make mistakes. And think about what effect they have on other people.

"Everyone has their setbacks and everyone had times when they fell.

"What I did all the time is just get up and not whine about it."