Arnold Schwarzenegger confesses he wasn’t sure ‘how good’ he would be at being a grandparent

He might be one of Hollywood’s toughest actors, but Arnold Schwarzenegger is just like anyone else when becoming a grandparent.

The 76-year-old Hollywood star is grandfather to Eloise Christina, 16 months, and three-year-old Lyla Maria through his daughter Katherine, 33, and has confessed he was initially unsure how he would fit into his new family role at the time but has found that things are “easy” because he has a lot of pets for them to bond with.

Speaking to People magazine, he said, “It’s just such a fun thing to do because it’s kind of like I [didn’t] know how good I would be [at being a grandfather] but I have the animals so it’s an easy thing.”

The The Terminator star went on to add that his eldest grandchild - who has decided to nickname him “Opa” - insists on seeing his dog Cherry when she comes over before he takes her to feed the pigs and meet the horses at his LA mansion.

He said: “The first thing that Lyla would say is, ‘Where’s Cherry?’ Which is my little dog. I say, ‘Cherry’s waiting for you.’ ‘Mommy, can we go over to see Opa, to see Cherry?’ ‘Sure, we go tomorrow.’ So they come over: ‘Cherry, Cherry, Cherry’ and she holds Cherry in her lap.

“Then I get the pig around and then she likes the pig and feeds the pig. Then I said ‘You want to come out? Let’s go out to the stable and see the horses.’ Okay, then take my hand and then we walk out to the fields and she goes to the stables and she visits the horses.

“Lyla would go and say, ‘Can I have a cookie?’ But it’s not the regular chocolate chip cookies. It’s the cookie that [my horses] Lulu and Whiskey eat.”

- Written by Bang! Showbiz and republished here with permission