People News

Arnold Schwarzenegger's ambitious childhood

Jan 21, 2013, 6:01 GMT

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger vowed to make 'millions of dollars' when he was a child.

The 65-year-old action star had an impoverished upbringing in a small town in Austria, but never let that restrict his ambitions of wanting to be rich and drive fast cars.

He said: 'I said, 'I want to make millions of dollars' and I didn't pay much attention to the fact that it's very rare that people actually do those things.

'Things don't happen by accident; they happen because you are totally determined and believe in your fate.

'It's a spiritual thing. I wanted to be rich and have the fastest car and things like that. In the end it's nonsense, but when I was young they were things to shoot for.'

The 'Last Stand' star - who has children Katherine, 23, Christina, 21, Patrick, 19, and 15-year-old Christopher with estranged wife Maria Shriver, as well as 14-year-old Joseph with former maid Mildred Baena - insists he never even thought about the difficulties he faced with his upbringing because hew as always focused on his goals.

He added in an interview with Live magazine: 'I never really thought about [the poverty]. When I finished with bodybuilding, I said, 'OK, now I want to be a leading man in Hollywood'.

'As a kid you don't notice it, but when you think back those were tough times.

'There was no food around; my mother had to go begging for food from farm to farm and come back with maybe a little bit of butter and some sugar.'