There’s no denying that the chances of keeping a substantial secret under wraps in Hollywood are about slim to none. It’s only a matter of time before a cheater or a liar can gets caught in the act, and by the time they’re ready to come clean about their indiscretions the damage has already been done. Celebrities sign up for a life in the limelight and whether they like it or not, they can become subject to scrutiny and public opinion at any given turn. Of course, everyone is guilty of telling a little white lie every now and then, but some big name stars have been caught up in scandals that could have easily ruined their entire careers in a matter of moments.

Of course, there’s no greater joy in life than having a baby, but when the pregnancy is unexpected and comes to fruition under the wrong circumstances, some celebs will go to great lengths to make sure their lovechild stays a well-kept secret. More often than not, the famous figures who try to deny paternity or attempt to cover up a string of rampant affairs are in for a rude awakening when their lies are finally exposed. You know what they say, “what is done in the dark will always come to light,” and that’s especially true for these select few celebrity parents. In the words of the great Maury Povitch, these guys are all too familiar with the term “you ARE the father!”

Here are 15 celebs who tried to keep their love child a secret.

15 Arnold Schwarzenegger - The Housekeeper's Baby

In perhaps one of the most inexplicable celebrity lovechild scandals there ever was, Arnold Schwarzenegger made jaws drop all over the world when he finally fessed up to fathering a secret son with the family housekeeper. Mildred Patty Baena had been employed by the Schwarzeneggers for almost two decades and was considered a valued employee and even a close family friend. Baena was the mother of a thirteen year old boy, Joseph, who was often present in Arnold’s home alongside his mother.

As the boy got older, Arnold’s wife, Maria Shriver, began to grow suspicious about his strikingly similar appearance to Arnold and eventually questioned her housekeeper about the child’s paternity. Baena confessed that she and Schwarzenegger had been having an affair and that they did produce a child together nearly fourteen years prior. When Maria brought this information to her governor husband, he was forced to admit that he had been concealing the massive secret right under his family’s nose all along.

Rightfully outraged and stunned by Arnold’s ongoing cheating and the fact that he knew he had a lovechild, Maria decided to pull the plug on their twenty-five year marriage. When everything was finally out in the open, Schwarzenegger had no choice but to make a public statement acknowledging Joseph Baena as his own and take responsibility for his reprehensible actions.

14 DJ Pauly D - The Surprise Daughter

Anyone who's seen a single episode of Jersey Shore already knows entirely too much about Pauly Delvecchio's bedroom habits. The show's male cast members had a shortlist of hobbies that included going to the gym, getting tan and doing laundry all before heading out to the club, but they also turned hooking up with the opposite sex into a competitive sport. While Pauly and his buddies made it their mission to bed as many women as humanly possible during their stint on the reality series, the DJ's string of casual flings would soon catch up to him after the reality show wrapped filming.

After a spur of the moment one night stand in Las Vegas with a groupie named Amanda Markert, Pauly fathered secret lovechild…the only problem was he had no idea the baby even existed. Throughout most of her pregnancy and after the child’s birth, the woman told her live-in boyfriend that he was the father. Things got really messy in 2013 after Markert went public with her claims that Pauly was the father of her five month old daughter, Amabella. The bitter baby mama alleged that Pauly hadn’t even acknowledged that the baby was his until a paternity test proved the truth.

Once news of Delvecchio’s lovechild came to light, he and Markert went tit for tat in a very public battle over money and custody and were quick to throw each other under the bus in the process. Ultimately, Pauly accepted the fact that his careless tryst resulted in a child with a woman he barely knew. Although he initially tried to keep his lovechild on the down-low, Pauly embraced his new role as a parent, stating, “I'm proud I'm a father. I am excited to embark on this new part of my life”.

13 Steven Tyler - The Secret Last Name

Let’s be honest…who better to have an illegitimate lovechild other than an incredibly famous rock star? Unbeknownst to him, Aerosmith front-man Steven Tyler fathered a child with a model named Bebe Buell during their brief affair in 1976. Following their moments of passion, Buell became pregnant with a daughter. She decided to name her Liv and gave her the same last name as her live-in boyfriend, Todd Rundgren, alleging that he was her biological father.

Although the man knew the truth about Liv’s paternity, he was dedicated to keeping the secret under wraps. When Liv was eight she met Steven Tyler and noticed a striking resemblance between herself and his other daughter, Mia. When she questioned her mother about her observation she chose to come clean about who really fathered her daughter. While Steven and Liv embarked on a newfound father/daughter relationship, the public was totally in the dark about the star’s big secret. It wasn’t until five years later when Liv changed her last name to “Tyler” that the rocker openly admitted to fathering the aspiring actress many years prior.

12 Chris Brown - A Royal Breakup

Following a very public relationship with Rihanna that was riddled with controversy and allegations of abuse, Chris Brown probably hoped for a more low-key romance when he began dating model Karrueche Tran beginning in 2010. Of course, the tumultuous twosome was off and on more times than anyone could count, and their explosive breakups and makeups were widely covered in the media.

During one of the couple’s many reunions, news broke that Chris Brown had allegedly fathered a nine month old child with a model named Nia Gonzalez. Brown and the women in question had been friends for years and at some point decided to have an affair, according to reports. Clearly hurt by Brown’s baby and betrayal, Karruche took to Twitter to break things off with the star, stating, “Listen. One can only take so much. The best of luck to Chris and his family. No baby drama for me."

After keeping this bombshell secret under wraps for months in an attempt to salvage his relationship with Tran, Chris Brown finally revealed that he was the father of an adorable daughter named Royalty.

11 James Marsden - A Hot Miami Night

After eleven years of marriage and welcoming two children together, James Marsden and his wife decided to divorce in 2011. While most freshly divorced men look forward to the perks of being single following a split, Marsden was saddled with more than he bargained for almost immediately after re-entering the dating world. The actor partook in a very brief fling with Brazilian model Rose Costa during one hot Miami night and their actions resulted in a pregnancy.

The media caught wind of the surprise pregnancy when Costa was just three months along and news traveled fast about Marsden being on the fast-track to fatherhood for the third time. When asked about the possibility of having a lovechild, Marsden declined to comment on the matter. While the rumors had been swirling since June of 2012, James didn’t claim the child as his own until December when his son, William Luca Costa-Marsden, was born.

10 Mathew Knowles - Money Isn't The Answer

Mathew Knowles may be best known for being the father to one of the biggest entertainers of our generation, but in recent years Beyonce’s padre has become notorious for fathering a collection of lovechildren. Of course, Mathew was married to Tina Knowles from 1980 until 2011 and their marriage gifted the world with Beyonce and Solange. In 2009, a woman named Alexsandra Wright accused Poppa Knowles of impregnating her during their torrid eighteen-month affair.

According to court documents, Mathew attempted to bribe the woman with a $225,000 payout in exchange for her silence on the pregnancy - but she was having none of it. After their son, Nixon, was born in 2010 news of Mathew’s lovechild had taken the media by storm. Based on the timing of the birth, Mathew was obviously still married to his wife when his secret son was conceived and she consequently filed for divorce soon after a DNA test confirmed what everybody already knew.

Proving that Knowles didn’t learn his lesson the first time around, a second woman named Taqoya Branscomb came forward to say that Knowles had fathered her daughter, Koi, in 2014. In true Mathew Knowles fashion, he denied paternity until a DNA test revealed that he was the father to this lovechild as well.

9 Nick Young - Couldn't Shut Down The Rumors

Professional basketball player Nick Young must have thought he was pretty slick when he was playing for the LA Lakers and became engaged to up-and-coming rapper, Iggy Izalea in 2015. Things appeared to be going pretty well for Young until his double life became exposed the following year after one of his teammates leaked a video of the NBA shooting guard bragging about his ongoing infidelities. While the athlete could be seen and heard boasting about bedding a bevy of women on a regular basis, his fiancé somehow decided to stick with him despite his rampant cheating.

Their relationship only became even more complicated when Izalea took a look at some home security footage and saw her man bringing various females in and out of the home they shared together. While Nick Young was already in the dog house after his cheating scandal, things were about to get much worse for everyone involved. Young’s ex, Keonna Green, decided to come forth and confess that she was not only having an affair with the star, but she was actually five months pregnant with his child.

Nick tried to backpedal and denied knocking up his former flame but at twenty-two weeks pregnant, the star could only protest paternity for so long before the truth came out. Green spoke candidly about their affair that resulted in a baby, stating, “With him being in a public relationship, he didn’t know how to handle it. We got caught up in the moment and it just happened.”

8 Gavin Rossdale - 15 Years Later

Everybody knows that rocker Gavin Rossdale was married to Gwen Stefani from 20002 until 2016 and their union brought on three sons together, but nobody (including his wife) knew that the former Bush front-man was holding on to a massive secret: he was potentially father of a fifteen year old daughter. Gavin’s true colors didn’t show until 2004 when a woman named Pearl Lowe declared that she and Rossdale conceived a child together in 1989, six years prior to him meeting Stefani.

Of course, Gavin was probably hoping to dispel any rumors of paternity when he agreed to take a DNA test that year, but the results showed that he was the father of a daughter named Daisy Lowe. Naturally, Rossdale’s wife was devastated by the news of his past coming back to haunt him but Gavin put in an effort to play a fatherly role. In the following years, Gavin and Daisy would continue to have a contentious relationship that consisted of being civil one minute and being estranged the next. Just a hunch, but maybe his baby mama shouldn’t have waited fifteen years to drop such a life-changing bombshell for both people involved.

7 Jude Law - The Dirty Dog

When it comes to staying in a committed relationship, Jude Law is one dirty dog. The actor was infamously embroiled in a very public scandal when it was revealed that he was cheating on Sienna Miller with his children’s nanny. Shortly after their inevitable split, Law had fathered a child with a model named Samantha Burke following their short-lived fling in 2008. The baby was allegedly conceived after the pair met at a nightclub in New York while Law was in town filming Sherlock Holmes.

Sophia Law was born in 2009 and a paternity test showed that Jude was the baby’s father despite his initial disbelief. With everything out in the open, Law had no other choice but to fess up to fathering his fourth child…but he didn’t stop there. By 2014, Jude Law found himself in a familiar situation following his nonchalant relationship with singer Catherine Harding.

Of course, Law couldn’t believe that he had fathered yet another lovechild and a rep for the actor admitted that the two were no longer romantically involved when the pregnancy came to light. Jude’s fifth child, a daughter named Ada, was born in 2015 and pending another DNA test, Jude finally confirmed that he was the father.

6 Bow Wow - Couldn't Shut It Down

Shad Moss, better known by his stage name “Bow Wow” shot to fame as a young rapper when he was just thirteen, but by age twenty-four the world would find out that the baby-faced star had actually fathered a baby of his very own. Back in 2010, Bow Wow linked up with a model named Joie Chavis and their rendezvous resulted in the woman becoming pregnant with a daughter, Shai Moss.

The bundle of joy was born in April of the following year but when word got out that the rapper was the father, he not only refused to admit paternity but he even denied bedding the baby mama all together! Chavis told the press that Bow Wow had been a poor example of a parent and rarely ever came to visit the child even though he knew it was his. After months of trying to shut down rumors about his secret lovechild, Bow Wow finally fessed up being the little girl’s father.

In a blog posted to his official website, Moss confessed, “I waited so long to tell yall the truth because I was nervous on how yall would look at me. Yall know everyone makes a big deal out of everything I do. I wanted to be first [and] let yall know the real.”

5 Eddie Murphy - Deny, Deny, Deny

At this point, actor/comedian Eddie Murphy should know a thing or two about being a father – after all, he does have nine children between five different baby mamas. The phenomenally fertile star may have manned up and acted as a dad to at least eight of his offspring, but Murphy adamantly denied paternity for the daughter he shares with former Spice Girl, Melanie Brown. Murphy and Mel B. embarked on a brief romance in 2006 but and their tryst resulted in Brown becoming pregnant.

While the singer’s pregnancy became common knowledge in the press, Eddie created waves of his own by denying that he had anything to do with the bun in her oven. Being a single parent is hard enough, but dealing with a high-profile paternity battle must have been no easy task for Mel to endure. Following Angel Brown’s birth in 2007, Murphy demanded a DNA test that ultimately confirmed he was the baby’s father. Even though Eddie knows that he shares a lovechild with Mel, he does the bare minimum when it comes to playing a leading role as her dad.

4 Michael Lohan - A Broken Father

We all know Michael Lohan as the attention-seeking father of Lindsay Lohan, and even though his reputation has never been picture perfect he still tried his best to conceal his secret lovechild from his family and the rest of the world. Michael was married to Lindsay’s mother, Dina from 1985 until 2007 but their relationship was far from a fairytale. After various run-ins with the law and volatile break-ups, the Lohans had been through a rocky past and the mere mention of Michael Lohan became a sore subject.

While Lindsay has always been very vocal about her complex relationship with her father, things between the pair really went south in 2008 after a woman came forward claiming to have had an affair with Michael in 1995 that resulted in a daughter. Usually in cases like these people are only looking for money and fame, but the results of a DNA test clearly proved Michael to have fathered the teenager. To make matters even more complicated, Lohan’s lovechild, Ashley Horn, was conceived in 1995 and Lindsay’s youngest brother, Dakota, was born in 1996, solidifying the fact that Michael had produced the lovechild while he was still married.

3 Sean “P. Diddy” Combs - A Messy Love Life

Sean Combs is a man of many monikers. Whether you know him best as P. Diddy, Puffy, or Puffy Daddy, his six children simply call him “dad”. The famed rapper has a total of six kids spread among three different women, but one of them was the result of a salacious secret affair. Combs was in an on-again/off-again romance with a woman named Kim Porter for the better half of a decade and in 2005 she became pregnant with the couple’s twin daughters. Porter was ecstatic about her pregnancy, until she found out that Combs had secretly fathered a baby with another woman.

Naturally, the mogul denied the allegations at first only to eventually admit he had cheated and got someone else pregnant. Diddy’s side-piece was named Sarah Chapman and she gave birth to a daughter, Chance, in 2006. Only five months later, Porter popped out twins D'Lila Star and Jessie James. Although Sean’s messy love life had proven to cause problems for his various baby mamas, he took eventually responsibility for all of the drama he created. While Combs was aware of his paternity involving the lovechild, he didn’t end up taking legal responsibility for his daughter until late 2007.

2 John Edwards - Skeletons Don't Hide Forever

It’s no secret that politicians are notorious for having an onslaught of skeletons hidden in their closets, but as with any massive secret, it’s only a matter of time before the truth comes to light. Unfortunately for former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, that was a lesson he would have to learn the hard way. Edwards catapulted to notoriety on a national level when he was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004 alongside presidential hopeful John Kerry.

In 2007, a major tabloid alleged that Edwards had been carrying on an extramarital affair with his campaign worker, Rielle Hunter. To make matters even more serious, the publication insisted that he was actually the man who fathered her child. While Edwards initially denied all counts of the magazine’s claims, he eventually confessed to the adulterous relationship while denying paternity of her young daughter, Frances Quinn. The politician issued a public statement rejecting any claims of fatherhood, stating, “I am and have been willing to take any test necessary to establish the fact that I am not the father of any baby, and I am truly hopeful that a test will be done so this fact can be definitively established.”

Edwards was adamant that his affair had ended prior to Rielle becoming pregnant. After years of trying to decline any sort of paternity for the child, he finally came clean in 2010 and admitted that he was, in fact, the father of a secret lovechild.

1 Dan Marino - The 8-Year Secret

Throughout his career, professional football player Dan Marino was practcically poster-boy for wholesome, all-American athletes. The famed quarterback lived out his glory days playing for the Miami Dolphins. Marino married his longtime love, Claire, in 1985 and they became the proud parents of six children over the next several years. Life seemed as close to perfect as it could possibly be for the NFL star, but the world had yet to find out that Marino had been covering up a scandalous secret for almost nine years.

In 2013, the New York Post received a tip that Marino had been a part of an adulterous affair in 2004 with a former CBS production assistant named Donna Savattere. Their torrid romance resulted in the birth of a daughter, Chloe, who was born the following year. According to reports, the former football star confessed his infidelity to his wife and admitted to fathering the child, and she somehow agreed to stay with him. Although he came clean to his wife and family, Dan managed to keep his lovechild a secret from the rest of the world until the girl was about eight years old.

In order to keep everything hush-hush, Marino agreed to pay out millions of dollars to his mistress in exchange for her silence. Marino even kept tight-lipped about his major secret to the higher-ups at CBS where he worked as a sports analyst for seven years. Once word ultimately got out that the Hall of Famer had secretly fathered his seventh child, Marino finally owned up to everything in 2013.

Sources: DailyMail.co.uk, NYDailynews.co, IBTimes.com