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Mariska Hargitay Unveils Decades-Old Family Secret in New Documentary ‘My Mom Jayne’

Originally posted on TV Insider | Last updated May 18, 2025 1:35 PM ET

Mariska Hargitay is named after the man who raised her, bodybuilder-turned-actor Mickey Hargitay, following the death of her mother, Playmate-turned-actor Jayne Mansfield. But the Law & Order: SVU star found out in her 20s that her biological father is actually the singer Nelson Sardelli, and she’s revealing that family secret in her new documentary, My Mom Jayne (airing on HBO on Friday, June 27), and in a new interview.

As is public knowledge, Mansfeld dated Sardelli in 1963 during relationship troubles with Mickey, from whom she filed for divorce. Mansfield reconciled with Mickey before giving she gave birth to Mariska in 1964, though the two would break up again before Mansfield’s death in 1967 at age 34.

And as she shares in the documentary, Mariska was in her 20s when someone showed her a photo of Sardelli, and she immediately knew he was her biological father. “It was like the floor fell out from underneath me,” she says in My Mom Jayne, per Vanity Fair. “Like my infrastructure dissolved.”

Mariska confronted Mickey about the revelation, but he denied it, and the two never discussed the matter again. Mickey died in 2006 at age 80.

Then, when she was 30, Hargitay attended one of Sardelli’s performances in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and introduced herself. Sardelli burst into tears, saying, “I’ve been waiting 30 years for this moment,” as Mariska told Vanity Fair in a new interview.

It was an emotional reunion for Hargitay, too, in a different sense. “I went full Olivia Benson on him,” she recalled, referring to her SVU character. “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.”

Eventually, however, Hargitay bonded with Sardelli and his daughters, and the singer even participated in the documentary. And Hargitay realized that Mansfield went back to Mickey because she knew Mickey would give Mariska a stable, loving home.

“I grew up where I was supposed to, and I do know that everyone made the best choice for me. I’m Mickey Hargitay’s daughter — that is not a lie,” she tearfully told Vanity Fair. “This documentary is kind of a love letter to him, because there’s no one that I was closer to on this planet.”

Now Hargitay is married to actor Peter Hermann, and two of their three children are adopted. “They are my kids,” she said in the interview. “Now I understand so much, and, boy, is it sweet.”

My Mom Jayne, Friday, June 27, HBO & HBO Max

This article first appeared on TV Insider and was syndicated with permission.

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