Arnold Schwarzenegger in denial over heart surgery

Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Photo / AP

Hollywood hard man Arnold Schwarzenegger only got through his 1997 heart surgery by ignoring how serious the operation was.

The 67-year-old star, who was a bodybuilder in his youth, has revealed he used denial as a coping mechanism for his health woes and put himself in further danger by ignoring warnings from doctors who urged him to slow down.

After the defective heart valve was replaced, Schwarzenegger took up cycling, and later had to undergo further surgery.

"I have been in denial all my life. I was in denial when I had to have heart surgery ... When I was waiting for my first heart surgery in my mind I was going to have a tooth pulled. I never faced up to the fact that it was major surgery because I did not want to deal with it. I was still playing pool at midnight and thinking this was just a minor thing that had nothing to with my body," Schwarzenegger told Britain's Daily Express newspaper.

"My grandmother and mother died from the same thing. I came home (from the operation) and started cycling. It was a stupid thing to do but I couldn't get my head around the fact that I'd need surgery. When I woke up from (the second operation) I told myself, 'This is a piece of cake. I will be out of here soon.' That is the way I think, that's the denial."

- WENN