Mariska Hargitay's 1st Reaction to Learning the Truth About Her Biological Dad
“It was like the floor fell out from underneath me," the Law & Order: SVU star recalls in her documentary, My Mom Jayne.
Between their beauty, talent, and shared status as Hollywood icons, there’s no doubt Mariska Hargitay and her late mother, Jayne Mansfield, have much in common. That said, the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star never got to know her mom—but she's determined to do that now via her new documentary, My Mom Jayne.
Mansfield tragically died in a car accident in 1967 at the young age of 34. Hargitay was only 3 years old. Premiering on June 27, the actress behind SVU’s Olivia Benson described her documentary about her mom as a “labor of love and longing.”
"It's a search for the mother I never knew, an integration of a part of myself I'd never owned, and a reclaiming of my mother's story and my own truth,” Hargitay said in a statement. “I've always believed there is strength in vulnerability, and the process of making this film has confirmed that belief like never before."
RELATED: How Mariska Hargitay Honored Late Mother Jayne Mansfield at Her Wedding
Many know Mansfield as one of the most famous movie stars, blonde bombshells, and sex symbols from the 1950s. She was also, as Hargitay once said, “just so ahead of her time" and a mother of five with a 160 IQ who also played the violin.
In the trailer for My Mom Jayne, Hargitay reflects on wanting to dig deeper into her mother’s legacy. “Her career made me want to do it differently,” she says. “But I want to understand her now.”
Below, find out some of the biggest revelations Hargitay shares in her documentary, My Mom Jayne.
Mariska Hargitay recalls learning the truth about her biological father
Towards the end of the trailer for My Mom Jayne, Hargitay talks about the moment she learned that the man who raised her, bodybuilder and actor Mickey Hargitay, who died in 2006, was not actually her biological father. In a May 2025 interview with Vanity Fair, Hargitay revealed she was in her 20s when she learned Italian singer Nelson Sardelli was her biological father after seeing a photo.
“I pulled out this picture, couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Hargitay says in the documentary’s trailer. “It was like the floor fell out from underneath me.”
During the documentary, Hargitay discusses the topic with her brother Zoltan. “Why didn’t he tell me?” she asks before walking to Zoltan and embracing him with a hug.
“Something that I’ve also realized,” Hargitay says in the trailer. “Keeping a secret doesn’t honor anyone.”
RELATED: The Motto Mariska Hargitay Learned from Dad Mickey That Got Her Through “Hard Years”
Hargitay told Vanity Fair she had asked her dad Mickey about the revelation, but he denied it and they simply left it at that. But later in her life, she met Sardelli in person, and the singer told her he’d been “waiting 30 years for this moment.” For Hargitay, however, she told Vanity Fair she channeled her SVU character during their encounter.
“I went full Olivia Benson on him,” she told the magazine. “I was like, ‘I don’t want anything, I don’t need anything from you.… I have a dad.’ There was something about loyalty. I wanted to be loyal to Mickey.”
Mariska Hargitay asks her siblings about their childhood memories with mom Jayne Mansfield
Being raised by a Hollywood legend like Jayne Mansfield is a unique experience only Hargitay and her siblings share. The SVU star, however, reveals she doesn’t remember much because she was so young when her mother died.
“I was 3 years old when my mom died, and I don’t have any memories of her. And then my dad died in 2006,” she says in the trailer. “I’ve never talked to my siblings about their experiences.”
RELATED: Little Mariska Hargitay Laughs with Beautiful Mom Jayne Mansfield in Sweet Baby Photo
In the trailer, Hargitay sits down with her brothers Mickey Hargitay Jr., Zoltan Hargitay, and Tony Cimber, as well as her sister Jayne Marie Mansfield. “You have all these memories, and I’m envious of that,” Hargitay tells her older sister.
“In the beginning, I had her to myself,” Jayne Marie, who was born roughly 13 years before Hargitay, shares. “She’d take me everywhere.”
“When you’re a kid, you don’t know anything else,” Mickey Jr. adds. “This is life.”
Zoltan says that the Jayne Mansfield sex symbol persona the public saw was a “character,” while Mickey Jr. recalls that he “looked the other way because I knew she was really smart.”
And not only have Hargitay's siblings been involved in the documentary, but Hargitay's Law & Order: SVU co-stars supported her the 2025 Tribeca Festival at Carnegie Hall.
Hargitay explains in the trailer that the documentary serves a bigger purpose on her journey to learning about her mother after distancing herself for so long. “Reclaiming our family story, that is what this is about for me,” she says. “Because she’s a part of me. I want to know her as Jayne — my mom, Jayne.
