Mariska Hargitay is understood for her lengthy and storied appearing profession, enjoying the function of Olivia Benson on Legislation & Order: Particular Victims Unit since 1999, and now showing in the identical function in Legislation and Order: Organised Crime.
However what some viewers won’t realise is that it runs within the household.
The actress has deep roots in Hollywood, because of her mom, ’50s bombshell and intercourse image Jayne Mansfield.
Sadly, Mariska didn’t get to know her mom very nicely, with Mansfield having tragically handed away in a freak accident – one Mariska miraculously escaped from.
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Mariska was born on January 23, 1964 because the youngest baby of Mansfield and her second husband, Hungarian actor, physique builder and former Mr. Universe 1955, Mickey Hargitay.
The couple had met and fallen shortly in love in Could 1956 and tied the knot in January 1958, days after her first divorce was finalised.
After they wed, they took their present on the highway. Mickey made his debut as an actor with a small half in Mansfield’s movie Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957), earlier than occurring to be her leads in Italian movies resembling The Loves of Hercules (1960) and L’Amore Primitivo (1964).
The couple additionally made a reputation for themselves touring in stage exhibits and nightclub acts as a performing crew, with Mansfield sporting her iconic leopard-spot bikini. A spotlight of the present was Mickey utilizing his power to toss Mansfield round his waist.
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Mariska has two older brothers, Miklós and Zoltán, in addition to three half-siblings – Jayne Marie Mansfield and Antonio “Tony” Cimber, from her mom’s first marriage to Paul Mansfield and third marriage to Matt Climber respectively, in addition to Tina Hargitay, from her father’s first marriage.
Her mother and father had been divorced in Could 1963, earlier than she was even born, however discovered their fast-tracked Mexican divorce was not recognised in America. They reconciled just a few months earlier than her delivery in 1964, however quickly separated once more, with the divorce being recognised in August.
Mariska would find yourself spending solely three quick years together with her mom earlier than she would witness her loss of life earlier than her personal eyes.
On that fateful night time of June 29, 1967, Mansfield, her legal professional and boyfriend Sam Brody, their 20-year-old driver Ronnie Harrison and her three kids together with her second husband had been bundled up in a 1966 Buick Electra 225, leaving Biloxi, Mississippi after two exhibits there for New Orleans, the place Mansfield was to look on WDSU’s Noon Present the subsequent day.
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The occasion by no means made it to their vacation spot. At 2:30am, their automotive had slid below the again of a Johnson’ tractor-trailer, which in flip had slowed right down to an insecticide fog-spraying truck.
The accident took the highest of the Electra clear off, killing the three adults within the entrance seat on affect. Mariska and her two brothers, who had been asleep within the backseat, escaped with minor accidents.
Thus started the city legend that Mansfield was decapitated in the course of the accident, with police crime scene photographs displaying the automotive with some blonde hair tangled within the entrance windshield, seemingly affirming the theories. Although Mansfield did die of extreme head trauma, the decapitation idea has been debunked.
Since her loss of life, there was a push to suit vans with an underride guard to make sure horrific accidents like this do not occur once more. In America, this bar is typically known as the “Mansfield bar”.
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After her mom’s loss of life, her father Mickey got here to choose Mariska and her siblings up, elevating them in Los Angeles together with his new spouse, airline stewardess Ellen Siano, who he wed in 1968.
“The wonder is that households are made in so many alternative methods, and that was my actuality as a baby,” Mariska commented in a 2018 Folks interview “Rising up, my household was made in such an interesting and distinctive manner.”
Regardless of her mom’s legacy, Mariska didn’t wish to be in comparison with her. As a substitute, she started her profession following her father’s stead. At 18, having been newly topped Miss Beverly Hills USA, she had instructed Time in 1982, “My dad was Mr. Universe, so it might be enjoyable for me to be Miss Universe.”
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She would go on to compete in Miss California USA and place fourth-runner-up earlier than having fun with a brief however action-packed movie and TV profession, earlier than lastly turning to her magnum opus, Legislation & Order: SVU.
Mariska ended up changing into very near her father, with the proud dad even as soon as showing in a 2003 episode of the present, making a cameo as a witness to a violent crime.
She misplaced her father quickly after in 2006, to most cancers.
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”It was enormous to lose this one that was my every little thing, my power, my energy, the one that believed in me… However I obtained to say goodbye, and I bear in mind it was very calm, and he simply checked out me and he stated, ‘Mariska… At all times’,” he recalled.
“I already carried his fireplace, the teachings that he taught me, his compassion, his love, his kindness. Now I do really feel that he is with me. Regardless that he isn’t right here bodily, I carry him.”
Nearly 20 years after his loss of life, she lastly revealed the reality she had saved to herself for many years – Mickey Hargitay was not her actual father.
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In her directorial debut My Mother Jayne – which premiered at Cannes Movie Pageant in 2025 – and a Vainness Truthful unique, she revealed the shock reality to the world.
The actress shared that she had at all times felt totally different to the remainder of her household, however could not put her finger on it till somebody confirmed her a photograph of Italian entertainer Nelson Sardelli in her twenties.
When Mariska laid eyes on the snap, she stated she instantly knew she was her father. ”It was like the ground fell out from beneath me,” she recalled in her movie, “Like my infrastructure dissolved.”
Mansfield had a highly-publicised fling with Sardelli after submitting for divorce from Mickey in 1963, earlier than she once more reconciled together with her second husband months earlier than Mariska’s delivery in 1964.
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When she confronted her father with the very fact, he instantly denied it, with the expertise being so traumatising Mariska by no means introduced up once more in his lifetime.
“He was my every little thing, my idol. He liked me a lot, and I knew it,” she instructed Vainness Truthful of the person she knew as her father.
Nonetheless, curiosity obtained the perfect of her and he or she needed to affirm the reality for herself. In her thirties, she went to Atlantic Metropolis within the US the place Sardelli was performing.
The second she launched herself to him he burst into tears, telling her, “I have been ready 30 years for this second”.
However the actress wasn’t so welcoming. “I went full Olivia Benson on him… I used to be like, ‘I do not need something, I do not want something from you.… I’ve a dad,'” she instructed the outlet.
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“There was one thing about loyalty. I wished to be loyal to Mickey,” she acknowledged.
Now 30 years on, she has since shaped a bond with Sardelli and his daughters, even holding a personal screening of the documentary for them, which they wept at.
However the bond did not come straightforward, with the actress reckoning with the very fact she was “dwelling a lie my total life”.
Finally, she got here to the realisation her mom had finished what she did with the intention to present a steady house for her younger daughter.
“I grew up the place I used to be presupposed to, and I do know that everybody made the only option for me,” she stated, “I am Mickey Hargitay’s daughter – that isn’t a lie.”
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Regardless of not getting the possibility to know her mom as intimately as she did her father, she says that each one it takes to attach together with her is to “look within the mirror… She’s with me nonetheless.”
Mariska describes Mansfield as an clever and loving lady and mom, in addition to being a intercourse image.
“She was simply so forward of her time. She was an inspiration, she had this urge for food for all times, and I feel I share that together with her,” she instructed Folks in 2018.
Within the Vainness Truthful piece, she opened up about her like by no means earlier than, talking of the actual affect of rising up the daughter of a Hollywood bombshell.
She grew up mortified by her mom’s blonde bimbo picture, most of all her pretend breathy voice, saying “it used to only flip me out. I would suppose, Why is she speaking like that? That is not actual.”
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Mickey would at all times guarantee her, saying “She wasn’t like that in any respect. She was such as you. She was humorous and irreverent and fearless and actual.”
However Mansfield’s legacy continued to affect the actress, with Mariska recalling, ”I simply wished my mum to be like the opposite mums! Like, Why are you at all times in a washing swimsuit? Why a lot breast? I simply wished a maternal mom picture… I used to be embarrassed by the alternatives that she made.”
Probably the most well-known photos of her mom – sitting alongside Sophia Loren because the Italian actress side-eyed her breasts coming out of her robe – had Mariska admitting, ”That was a tough one. To see one other lady take a look at your mum like that was excruciating for me as somewhat lady.”
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It led her to go down a unique path, rising up as a tomboy and later influencing the characters she would play as an actress.
”I did not wish to be that lady, and I used to be judgmental about it. That is the trustworthy reply,” she admitted.
Mariska is greatest identified for enjoying tv’s longest-running character, Olivia Benson, a Violent Crimes detective in Legislation and Order: SVU for 26 years, a alternative she finds “ironic”.
“I’ve had a lot strife and turmoil with this phrase mom – and right here I used to be, this iconic mom determine within the tradition.”
Now 61, Mariska is a mom herself, having settled down and grown her household in an unconventional manner.
She met her husband, actor Peter Hermann, on the set of SVU within the early 2000s, marrying him in 2004.
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They welcomed their son in 2006 earlier than occurring to undertake her subsequent two kids, a daughter and a son, each born and adopted in 2011.
Residing with the lack of her mom, but her reminiscence being very a lot alive in each house and profession environments, has created a novel method to cope with loss for Mariska.
“In my life, definitely I’ve tried to keep away from ache, loss, feeling issues. However I’ve realized as an alternative to actually lean into it, as a result of ultimately you need to pay the piper,” she stated.
“I am not saying it is easy, and it definitely hasn’t been for me… There’s been quite a lot of darkness. However on the opposite aspect issues could be so brilliant.”
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