Mariska Hargitay reveals real identity of…
Her dad Nelson.
Mariska Hargitay’s new documentary, “My Mom Jayne,” doesn’t just discover the life of her well-known mother, actress Jayne Mansfield. The movie, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, also reveals the real identity of her organic father.
For the first time, the “Law & Order: SVU” actress has revealed that her father isn’t really bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay. Thirty-six years in the past, she came upon her organic dad is a retired Las Vegas showman named Nelson Sardelli.
“It was like the floor fell out from underneath me,” she stated of studying the reality, stating that she was “living a lie” for many years. “Like my infrastructure dissolved.”
Mansfield had a transient affair with Sardelli, 90, before she reconciled with Mickey. She and Mickey divorced in 1964.
Mariska Hargitay and Mickey Hargitay during “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” one centesimal Episode Party at TAO at TAO in New York. WireImage for Universal Television Productions
Mickey Hargitay, Jayne Mansfield backstage at the Westbury, L. I. Music Fair. Bettmann Archive
Jayne also was mother to daughter Jayne Marie with first husband Paul Mansfield, sons Miklós “Mickey” and Zoltán with Mickey and son Antonio “Tony” with third husband, Italian film director Matt Cimber.
Mariska recalled seeing a image of Sardelli in her 20s and demanding the reality. Mickey initially insisted that he was her organic father. He later died at age 80 in 2006.
Mariska would go on to meet Sardelli for the first time when he carried out in Atlantic City, N.J. She was 30 years outdated at the time.
“I’ve been waiting 30 years for this moment,” the actress recalled him saying during an interview with Vanity Fair.
Mariska Hargitay and mother Jayne Mansfield. Photo 12/Alamy Stock Photo/Courtesy of HBO
Although emotional, Hargitay had a tough time with their exchange and started to act like her iconic NBC character.
“[I went] full Olivia Benson on him,” she advised the outlet. “I was like, ‘I don’t want anything, I don’t need anything from you.… I have a dad, ‘ ” she recalled telling him. “There was something about loyalty. I wanted to be loyal to Mickey.”
Sardelli and his different two daughters — Mariska’s half sisters — participated in the documentary, in addition to Mariska’s different siblings Jayne Marie and Tony.
At 61, the actress felt that there was no need to keep the identity of her organic father a secret from the public any longer.
“I grew up where I was supposed to, and I do know that everyone made the best choice for me,” she stated. “I’m Mickey Hargitay’s daughter — that is not a lie.”
Mariska Hargitay poses during a photocall for the movie “My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay” at the 78th version of the Cannes Film Festival. AFP via Getty Images
Mariska additional opened up about the loss of her mother in her doc, which she directed. On June 29, 1967, Mansfield died immediately in a car crash when the car she was using in struck the rear of a trailer truck on US Route 90 east in New Orleans, Louisiana. Driver Ronald B. Harrison and Mansfield’s companion, Samuel S. Brody, have been also killed.
Mariska, who was just 3 years outdated at the time, and her siblings Mickey Jr., 8, and Zoltan, 6, all survived the crash.
Mansfield appeared in more than two dozen movies during her profession, including 1956’s “The Girl Can’t Help It” and 1957’s “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?”
Mariska Hargitay and husband Peter Hermann at the premiere of the movie “Die, My Love” at the 78th worldwide movie pageant in Cannes on May 17, 2025. Natacha Pisarenko/Invision/AP
“My mother was this amazing, beautiful, glamorous sex symbol — but people didn’t know that she played the violin and had a 160 IQ and had five kids and loved dogs,” Mariska advised People in 2018. “She was just so ahead of her time. She was an inspiration, she had this appetite for life, and I think I share that with her.”
Mariska, for her half, has been married to fellow actor and “Younger” alum Peter Hermann since 2004. The couple are dad and mom of three kids — August Miklos Friedrich, born 2006, Amaya Josephine Hermann, born 2011, and Andrew Nicolas Hermann, born 2011.
“My Mom Jayne” will probably be launched on HBO on June 27.
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