Tragic Details About Patrick Schwarzenegger

Patrick Schwarzenegger might look like the kind of guy who's had life served to him on a silver platter — after all, Schwarzenegger and Kennedy blood are running through his veins, with doors flying open left and right — but according to him, it's not all rainbows and butterflies. The actor insists his life hasn't been as effortless as people assume, and he's tired of being judged solely for his privileged upbringing.

Lately, though, things are looking up for him — or at least, he's landed what could be his biggest career breakthrough yet: a role in HBO's "The White Lotus." And before anyone rolls their eyes, he swears it wasn't handed to him. In fact, he was so unsure about his chances that he kept the whole audition process a secret from his family, despite them being the ones to encourage him to do it. "I didn't tell anybody because I was like, 'Whatever, everyone's going to go out for this show. I have such a sliver of a chance to get a call back,'" he told People, adding that he found himself in so much distress. "I could not enjoy the holidays. I had so much anxiety, I was freaking out over it." And when he finally got a call that he got the part, it was pretty much all waterworks. "I started crying, and it was the greatest day in history for me," he revealed.

But getting to this point hasn't been all smooth sailing. While his life may appear perfect from the outside looking in, he's had his fair share of struggles — at least, by Hollywood royalty standards. Here's a look at some of them.

Patrick Schwarzenegger is the textbook definition of a nepo baby — twice over at that. Not only is he the son of action star-turned-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger, but his mother, Maria Shriver, comes straight from the Kennedy dynasty, making him Hollywood and political royalty. With that kind of pedigree, it's no shock that he's been hit with nepotism accusations left, right, and center, with plenty assuming he's riding the family connections straight to Hollywood success.

But Patrick knows what people are saying — but he's decided not to waste his energy fighting it. In an interview with InStyle, he admitted that the "nepo baby" label will always hang over his head, but he's done trying to change minds. "People are going to have their opinions of me no matter what. They're going to say 'nepotism' or that I only got a role because of my dad. ... It's just a bottomless hole of trying to fill that void. But we have one life and it's such a waste of time to try to convince or impress people," he said.

Instead, the "Midnight Sun" star insists he's out to prove he's more than just a famous last name, even if that means turning down projects that could have easily padded his acting repertoire. "I started saying 'no' to a majority of projects, and was trying to really think long term," he added. "I want to focus on really high quality projects... with amazing writers or directors or showrunners or incredible actors. I don't care if it's a leading role, I just want to continue to build my résumé. I really want to try to convert the perception of people that are in the film industry that I'm a serious actor."

Patrick Schwarzenegger may have mastered how to tune out the haters, but having been born into Hollywood royalty and American political royalty as he has means he's constantly battling to prove he's more than just a nepo baby with a famous last name. "Coming from my family is a double-edged sword. It can be incredibly inspirational but it also puts on a lot of pressure," he told Glamour UK (via The Tribune). "I was desperately trying to prove that I'm not just so-and-so's kid and that I was making my own path."

Determined to be more than just a Kennedy-Schwarzenegger hybrid, Patrick swears he's been building his career from scratch — even turning down the nepotism boost his dad tried to give him. But apparently, having a last name that opens doors can also mean barely anyone takes you seriously. "The first thing people say to me when we meet is, 'You're rich, your dad is wealthy, you have no work ethic.' That's hard to hear because it's not true — I have to just live with that assumption," he said.

And while plenty of Hollywood legacies don't hesitate to ride the family coattails, Patrick swears he's never taken the easy route. "I have never worked with my dad on a film. I have never been on any of his projects, even though he has tried to find ways of doing it. I do not want to feel like it is a cop out, that he just got me a role because I am his son," he dished to Flaunt. "Out of the thousands of auditions I have been on, I have been rejected 99.9 percent of the time. That is just what happens."

Like father, like son — right down to the ski wipeouts. Just like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Patrick Schwarzenegger has a thing for hitting the slopes, but his enthusiasm quite literally landed him on his butt in 2012. The then-teenager got into a ski accident that left him banged up, tweeting, "Little ski accident today. Some bruises and stitches down back and but [sic]. Thanks to sun valley doctors for everything" (via CBS News). Sound familiar? That's because his dad had a very similar mishap six years earlier, breaking his leg in a ski accident — also at Sun Valley.

The full extent of Patrick's injuries wasn't clear at the time, but in 2020, he revealed that he had to go through a major shoulder surgery, likely due to the accident. "I tried to do physical therapy for a year, and then I got PRP shots and I got stem cell shots and I tried physical therapy again. Nothing was showing up on the MRI. Finally the doctor decided to go and do a scope, and he basically found my whole shoulder was completely messed up and had to do a big surgery," he told GQ. "I was out for eight months. It was pretty s****y. Between that and rolling right into COVID, I did absolutely nothing for a few months and just ate and got kinda out of shape."

The whole ordeal took longer than he expected, but Patrick, ever the optimist, treated it as a personal challenge. "It's always fun to prove to yourself that you can go from doing absolutely nothing to getting back to where you wanna be," he added. "It just takes a long frickin' time."

It's easy to assume Patrick Schwarzenegger is tight with his dad — after all, he's never even considered ditching the famous last name, despite the baggage that comes with it. But back in 2011, he did drop it for a brief moment, and not just for fun.

That year, Arnold Schwarzenegger's infamous cheating scandal rocked the family, revealing he had an affair with the housekeeper that resulted in a child out of wedlock. Patrick didn't go on a public rant, but he made his feelings pretty clear by temporarily changing his name on X, formerly Twitter, to Patrick Shriver. If that wasn't enough of a statement, he also tweeted, "I love my family till death do us part," along with lyrics by rapper Fort Minor that read: "Some days you feel like s**t, some days you want to quit and just be normal for a bit, yet i love my family till death do us apart," according to SFist.

Whatever frustration he had at the time seems to have passed, though, because these days, father and son are back to being thick as thieves. Arnold himself confirmed as much in a GQ Germany interview, saying that they're now as solid as ever. "We have a great father-son relationship, and we also have a great friendship," he said. "My vision was to create great kids. What I'm proud of is that I could kind of show him the way, and he knew that he had all the help in the world from me all the time, but that he had to do the work also."

Being born into the limelight comes with its fair share of drama, and Patrick Schwarzenegger has had his moments. In 2015, TMZ reported that he was involved in a car chase that escalated to the other driver crashing into his vehicle before authorities had to step in. Fortunately, no one got hurt, and it doesn't look like he faced any charges, but still, it wasn't a great look for him.

Later that year, Patrick made headlines again — this time for supposedly cheating on then-girlfriend Miley Cyrus while partying in Mexico. Paparazzi caught him getting cozy with another woman, setting off rumors that he was having an affair. But Patrick was quick to shut it down, claiming in a series of tweets, "Would NEVER do anything against my GF," he wrote. "Girls have guy friends and guys have friends that are girls." The relationship didn't last much longer after that, though, so make of that what you will.

Despite the occasional controversy, Patrick insists he's stayed on the straight and narrow — at least compared to other Hollywood offspring. "I don't want to paint my family too pretty ... but I know, without getting into names, plenty of people that are my parents' friends' kids in the industry that have gone down the other way and got caught up in the drug and alcohol space and the party scene. I think it was just that I couldn't even imagine doing something and disappointing my dad and mom," he told Interview Magazine. "We were also in the public eye a little bit differently because my dad was governor during my teenage years, so that was another heightened awareness. But yeah, I think it was the element of family and those values."