She’s known as Olivia Benson from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, but Mariska Hargitay’s personal story is also incredibly noteworthy.
The actress is lifting the lid on her late mother Jayne Mansfield, and a secret that plagued her for years in her new documentary My Mom Jayne.
Along with her directorial debut, she was recently named in Time Magazine’s Time100 list of philanthropic people for 2025, alongside Prince William and Princess Catherine.
Find out all about it below.
What happened to Mariska Hargitay’s mum?
Mariska lost Jayne, who was 34, in 1967, in a car accident when the actress was three. It was in this accident that Mariska received her recognisable scar.
Through her new documentary, the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit actress is determined to tell her story and highlight her legacy through interviews, never-before-seen family photos, and films.
“I’ve dedicated my almost thirty years here to telling important stories, and I’m profoundly moved to have the opportunity to tell this deeply personal one—my mother’s, mine, and ours together,” she posted on Instagram discussing the project.
“My mom and I never had the opportunity to create something together, and she didn’t always get to tell the stories she truly cared about.”
Who is Mariska Harigay’s father?
The documentary was featured at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and received a four-minute standing ovation.
Speaking to reporters at the event, she said it was “a very personal film and truly a dream come true”. Her husband, Peter Hermann, and their children, August, Amaya, and Andrew, went in support of her.
In the film, she also shared when she discovered who her real father is. Growing up, she was raised by the American-Hungarian bodybuilder and actor Mickey Hargitay, who died in 2006.
“This documentary is a love letter to Mickey because there’s no one that I was closer to on this planet,” she told Vanity Fair.
She said she often wondered why she looked different from her five siblings and recalled the moment when she found out her father is former Las Vegas entertainer Nelson Sardelli, who is now 90.
When she saw a photo of him with her late mother, she knew. She found out that her mother had split up from Mickey when she was born, and then had an affair with the performer.
“It was like the floor fell out from underneath me,” she told the publication. “Like my infrastructure dissolved.”
The actress then explained that she confronted Mickey about it, and he denied it, so it was never brought up again.
She then went to see Nelson perform when she was 30 and introduced herself. She added that he said, “I’ve been waiting 30 years for this moment.”
At the time, she’d known about her paternity for five years and said it was a complicated situation.
“I went full Olivia Benson on him,” she told Vanity Fair.
“I was like, ‘I don’t want anything, I don’t need anything from you, I have a dad.’ I wanted to be loyal to Mickey.”
Where can I watch the My Mom Jayne documentary?
You can watch the documentary exclusively on HBO Max from June 28. It airs the same day as the US.
