Mariska Hargitay has opened up to podcast host Alex Cooper on the moment she accidentally discovered her dad wasn’t her biological father.
The discussion came up on the Call Her Daddy podcast while the actress promoted her new documentary My Mom Jayne, about her screen siren mother Jayne Mansfield, who died in a car crash when she was just three.
Now 61, the Law and Order actress recalled the moment when at age 25 she saw a photo of her biological father, Nelson Sardelli, and confronted her dad Mickey Hargitay.
READ MORE: Taylor Swift gives surprise performance in Nashville
“The one thing that I was rooted in, the one thing that was my constant was no longer mine, and my identity was just, it was like it broke in two,” she said on the podcast.
“I had thousands of pellets of hard truth going, ‘my brothers aren’t my brothers … I’m not Hungarian, I’m not related to all my family that I grew up with in Hungary’.”
After making the bombshell discovery at the home of the Jayne Mansfield Fan Club president – who made an off-hand comment to her during her visit, thinking she already knew the family secret – Mariska drove directly to her brother’s house but he said he knew nothing of it.
She then went to speak with her father – a Hungarian bodybuilder turned actor.
“How about this metaphor – my dad was building me, physically building me a house,” she told Cooper.
READ MORE: Orlando Bloom’s posts from Aussie spot amid two major rumours
“So I drive up to the house that he is building me and confront him, and he was like, ‘What? What are you talking about? Are you crazy? That’s so not true’.
“He kept saying, ‘You look like my father. You look exactly like my father. You’re a Hargitay to the end’.
“And you know, the irony is that I’m more like my dad than anyone in our whole family, like I am mini Mickey, right?
“And so it was just a very extraordinarily painful moment. And I always say, this is the moment that I became an adult, and it’s so visceral for me, because I was in so much pain.”
Mariska says even in the midst of her pain, she saw her dad’s pain at the thought.
“I was so overwhelmed … ‘oh my gosh, my life is over’ and then looking at this man who has been nothing but loving to me and nothing but this amazing father to me,” she said.
“And I saw his pain, and I said, ‘it doesn’t matter what I feel. I love him, and we’re done here’.”
Mariska says she “pretended that I believed him” and the pair never spoke of it again. Mickey died in 2006.
Now, as a mother herself to both adopted and biological children with Younger star Peter Hermann, the actress says she understands his love as a father even more.
“I understand it because I have two adopted kids, and they are no different – no different – than my biological son, no different,” Mariska said.
“And so to me, I go, ‘I get it. It didn’t matter. It doesn’t matter’.”
Mickey and Mansfield married in 1956 and had her two older brothers – Miklós “Mickey” Jr and Zoltán – before a brief split, reconciliation and welcoming Mariska in 1964.
It’s understood Mansfield had a romance with the Italian entertainer after filing for divorce in 1963 but got back together with Mickey just months before their daughter was born.
During the wide-reaching interview, the Law and Order: Special Victim’s Unit star spoke about publicly revealing a sexual assault experience from her 30s at the age of 60, last year.
She also spoke about how she dealt with her own trauma while appearing on a show with similar storylines.
For a daily dose of 9Honey, subscribe to our newsletter here.
Rapper DMX welcomes his 15th child…joining the list of celebrity dads with lots of kids
Mariska, who said she’d dreamed of being a comedic actress when first approaching the industry before becoming famous for a very serious role, revealed a psychic had predicted it all.
My Mom Jayne, which premiered at Cannes Film Festival in May, had it’s LA launch on Monday night with Drew Barrymore among the celebrity guests.
FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.
