Arnold Schwarzenegger reveals he’s had a pacemaker implanted, jokes he’s a little bit more of a machine now

Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed on his Arnold’s Pump Club podcast that he recently had surgery to have a pacemaker implanted and is thankfully on the road to recovery.

“Last Monday, I had surgery to become a little bit more of a machine: I got a pacemaker,” the Terminator actor said. “First of all, I want you to know I’m doing great! I had my surgery on Monday, and by Friday, I was already at a big environmental event with my friend and fellow fitness crusader Jane Fonda. Nobody would ever have thought I started the week with a surgery.“

Schwarzenegger continued, “I want to thank my whole team at the Cleveland Clinic. All of the doctors and nurses took amazing care of me and made the surgery as painless as possible.” The actor has previously had three open-heart surgeries, with two surgeries in 1997 to replace his pulmonic valve and aortic valve. He had surgery to get both replaced in 2018 and 2020 and has had his condition monitored closely. “I stayed in touch with my medical team and visited in person at least once a year to get a full check-up and see how my heart was doing,” he said. “That’s life with a genetic heart issue. But you won’t hear me complaining.“

After a normal checkup, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s doctor told him that he needed to get a pacemaker implanted as soon as possible. “I told them I’d stop in Cleveland on my way home from the UK, and we’d do it. Monday, I went under and got my new machine part installed,” he explained. “Like I said, by Friday, I was out doing my normal environmental work, and nobody knew anything. I can’t do my serious training in the gym for a while, but I will be 100% ready for FUBAR [season 2] next month!“

The actor added that although sharing this news “goes against so much of my upbringing in Austria,” he wanted fans who are suffering from their own health challenges to know that they’re not alone. “I could have kept it a secret. But I know that we have more than 750,000 subscribers now — the village is a city now — and a lot of you are probably dealing with your own health challenges,” Schwarzenegger said. “I want you to know you aren’t alone. And if you’re putting something off out of fear, I hope I inspire you to listen to your doctors and take care of yourself.“