Mariska Hargitay Reveals Mickey Hargitay Died Denying He Wasn’t Her Biological Father
Mickey Hargitay may not have been Mariska Hargitay‘s biological father, but he was proud to be her dad until the very end.
In Mariska’s new documentary My Mom Jayne, the actress revealed that her actual father is singer Nelson Sardelli, despite being raised to believe she was Mickey’s daughter. The Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star opened up about the revelation on the Wednesday, June 25, episode of Alex Cooper‘s Call Her Daddy podcast, sharing that Mickey continued to deny the truth of her parentage until his death at age 80 in 2006.
“He used to say, even before he died, ‘Remember when you thought that crazy thing?’ and I go, ‘I know, wasn’t that nuts?’ she stated. “I went with it, and then I felt like I became the parent in a way, and I was grateful to be that.”
When asked if the actor-bodybuilder “genuinely thought” he was her father, Mariska said, “I don’t know. I’ll never know.”
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival
She added, “He made a choice, and that was his new truth, and whether it’s true or not emotionally, it was his truth. And I’ll tell you something. I understand it because I have two adopted kids, and they are no different, no different than my biological son, no different, and so to me, I go, ‘I get it.’ It didn’t matter. It doesn’t matter.” (Mariska shares her children — August, 18, Amaya, 14, and Andrew, 13 — with husband Peter Hermann.)
My Mom Jayne, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last month, follows Mariska as she explores the life and legacy of her late mother, Playboy Playmate and actress Jayne Mansfield. Mansfield was married to Mickey from 1958 to 1964, but she briefly dated Sardelli in 1963 amid the couple’s marriage troubles. She was later married to Matt Cimber before her death at age 34 in 1967.
On Call Her Daddy, Mariska recalled realizing Sardelli was her biological father during a visit to the home of the president of Mansfield’s fan club. “He says to me, ‘Do you want to see a picture of Nelson?'” she said. “And I just looked at him, and this jolt went through my body, and I said, ‘Who’s Nelson?’ and then I knew in one second.”
Mariska continued, “I saw the blood drain out of his face, and he sort of panicked and turned white, and then he said, you know, he panicked and he said, ‘Oh, it’s probably not true, it’s probably not true.’ And that’s when I knew, and I think that he couldn’t believe that I didn’t know. I was 25. How could I not know? And I understand that, and then, he says, ‘It’s not true. I’m sure it’s not true,’ and then he showed me his picture. On a cellular level, it was just like DNA talking to DNA, and I knew it was true.”
Following the visit, Mariska confronted Mickey about the news, which he immediately denied. “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. I am mini Mickey, right?” she told Cooper.
“And so it was just a very extraordinarily painful moment, and I always say that this is the moment that I became an adult, and it’s so visceral for me because I was in so much pain. … I said, ‘It doesn’t matter what I feel. I love him and I’m not, we’re done here. We’re done here,'” she noted. “And so I said, ‘OK, thank you for telling me,’ and I pretended that I believed him and we never spoke of it again.”
My Mom Jayne, Friday, June 27, HBO & HBO Max
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