Mariska Hargitay is lastly able to share a lifelong household secret.
In her new documentary “My Mom Jayne,” the “Law & Order: SVU” star reveals how she realized that the person who raised her, bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay, was not her organic father.
“He was my everything, my idol. He loved me so much, and I knew it,” Hargitay informed Vainness Truthful. “I also knew something else. I just didn’t know what I knew.”
Mickey raised the longer term tv actor and her siblings after the tragic demise of their mom, Hollywood icon Jayne Mansfield, in 1967.
Although she adored her father, Hargitay stated she all the time felt totally different from her siblings.
As an grownup, she realized that Mansfield had divorced Mickey in 1963 and briefly dated Italian singer Nelson Sardelli earlier than reconciling along with her ex-husband months earlier than Hargitay was born in 1964.
However it wasn’t till her 20s, when somebody confirmed her a photograph of Sardelli, that every thing clicked, the actor shared.
“It was like the floor fell out from underneath me,” she says within the movie. “Like my infrastructure dissolved.”
She confronted Mickey, however when he denied the likelihood that she was another person’s daughter, she selected to bury the reality… at the very least for some time.
A couple of decade later, at age 30, Hargitay went to see Sardelli carry out in Atlantic Metropolis. After the present, she launched herself.
“I’ve been waiting 30 years for this moment,” he informed her, confirming what she had lengthy suspected.
Torn between newfound fact and deep loyalty to the person who raised her, Hargitay stated she instinctively slipped into her TV alter ego.
“I went full Olivia Benson on him,” she stated. “I was like, ‘I don’t want anything, I don’t need anything from you… I have a dad.’”
Bettmann through Getty Photos
Coming to phrases with the reality meant confronting the painful actuality: “knowing” she had been “living a lie my entire life.”
Over time, she constructed a relationship with Sardelli and his daughters, gaining new understanding of her mom’s choice to reconcile with Hargitay for the sake of her youngsters.
“I grew up where I was supposed to,” she informed Vainness Truthful. “And I do know that everyone made the best choice for me. I’m Mickey Hargitay’s daughter — that is not a lie.”
“My Mom Jayne” premiered at Cannes Movie Competition and debuts on HBO and Max on June 27.
