“I Don’t Know if You Are Man Enough”: Maria Shriver’s Father Put Arnold Schwarzenegger to an Ultimate Masculinity Test Before Their Marriage

Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s love for Cuban cigars is as famous as his illustrative career. Large boulders, massive chests, iconic hummers, and Cuban cigars aptly represent Arnold Schwarzenegger’s macho personality. Despite multiple heart surgeries, the Austrian Oak continues to smoke in his late seventies. 

But in an interview with Marvin R. Shanken of Cigar Aficionado, Schwarzenegger spilled the beans on how he acquired the habit of smoking cigars.

Arnold Schwarzenegger undergoes a test to prove his machoism

The Austrian Oak’s ripped muscles that won seven Mr. Olympia titles are proof enough to testify to his strength. But the dad of his then-girlfriend didn’t find that enough. Arnold Schwarzenegger sat with Marvin R. Shanken to explore the world of Cigars, and in the intriguing interview he spilled tea about Maria Shriver’s father. 

The father of Kennedy’s princess, Sargent Shriver, was the one who introduced Schwarzenegger to the art of smoking cigars in 1978, and the Governator has been hooked to stogies ever since. The 76-year-old bodybuilding legend narrated how Sargent Shriver would take him to the basement, pull out the stogies, and offer a cigar to Schwarzenegger and would say, “I don’t know if you’re man enough to smoke that.” 

Arnie being Arnie, would want to prove his machismo to his girlfriend’s father. “I’m dating his daughter. Of course, I wanted to show. If the bodybuilding and the muscles didn’t make him convinced that I’m a man enough, I don’t know, I may be have to smoke a cigar,” Schwarzenegger revealed how he took up smoking. Later, Arnie found a friend to share his love for Cigars.

John Milius and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cigar moments on film sets

The 7x Mr. Olympia champion quit his bodybuilding career and ventured into films to reign in Hollywood. His breakthrough in cinema came in the 1982 film Conan the Barbarian, directed by John Milius. The director was a cigar fan and shared his love with Arnie. 

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To direct a movie, Milius would end up getting boxes of cigars from Switzerland. The director would then share these with the lead actor, given Arnie’s interest in smoking them. Later, Schwarzenegger gained immense knowledge about cigars and once even gave some cigar-smoking lessons to Jimmy Fallon. 

Arnold Schwarzenegger pursued a variety of fields with passion and enthusiasm. In the same way, he pioneered cigar-smoking skills, and no one can take away his magnificent aura surrounding cigars, even at 76. 

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