Arnold Schwarzenegger has revealed that he gave money to have 25 residences built for homeless veterans in Los Angeles
In a new Instagram album the 74-year-old former California governor could be seen stopping by the structures on the chilly Thursday.
He wrapped up in a cozy-looking leather jacket with an American flag patch and mingled with some of the beneficiaries of his charity.
‘Today, I celebrated Christmas early. The 25 homes I donated for homeless veterans were installed here in LA,’ he wrote on Thursday, a rainy day in Los Angeles.
‘It was fantastic to spend some time with our heroes and welcome them into their new homes,’ the Terminator star added.
‘I want to thank @villageforvets for arranging the homes and being a fantastic partner, @secvetaffairs, @amvetshq and everyone who worked with us and made this possible. We proved that when we all work together, we can solve any problem.’
Arnie is himself a veteran, as when he turned 18 he served what was then a compulsory year in his native Austria’s armed forces.
He was far from an exemplary soldier, briefly landing in military prison after going AWOL to compete in Junior Mr. Europe.
The True Lies actor had to cross the border into Germany in order to participate in the bodybuilding contest, which he won
He added: ‘I always felt out of place in Austria. I felt kind of like – I mean it was a beautiful country and everything but it was kind of like I felt like it’s too little for me. I was much more attracted to America.’
Arnie, whose father Gustav was a volunteer Nazi storm trooper, joked that ‘it was almost kind of like, it was one of those weird things, you know, this – maybe I’m the child of some American soldier of some sort. You know, there was something going on, you know, that somehow I belong to America.’
The international superstar is on the verge of becoming a grandfather a second time as his daughter Katherine is pregnant with her second child.
She already shares a one-year-old daughter called Lyla with her movie star husband Chris Pratt, whom she married in Montecito in 2019.
