Mariska Hargitay Drops 30-Year Bombshell Secret About Her Real Father

Mariska Hargitay simply dropped an enormous household bombshell that’s been buried for over 30 years, one which rewrites the narrative of her well-known Hollywood upbringing.

The “Regulation & Order: SVU” star shocked followers on the Cannes Movie Pageant with the premiere of her new documentary “My Mother Jayne,” a deeply private tribute to her late mom, display siren Jayne Mansfield.

However within the strategy of honoring her mother, Mariska Hargitay revealed one thing nobody noticed coming: the person who raised her, bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay, just isn’t her organic father.

The jaw-dropping reveal marks Hargitay’s function movie directorial debut, and the documentary does not maintain again.

Alongside the tragic story of her mom’s demise in a horrific automobile crash in 1967, when Mariska was simply three years previous, comes the revelation that her actual father is former Las Vegas entertainer Nelson Sardelli.

In keeping with her interview with Vanity Fair, the reality got here out when she was 25 years previous. She confronted Mickey, who insisted he was her father, they usually by no means spoke of it once more. However the questions lingered. She questioned why she didn’t fairly really feel like she shared the identical Hungarian roots as her brothers Zoltan and Mickey Jr.

When she turned 30, she lastly met Sardelli in Atlantic Metropolis, the place he was performing.

Hargitay instructed Vainness Honest that she launched herself to him as his daughter. His emotional response? “I’ve been ready 30 years for this second.” However she wasn’t prepared to leap right into a father-daughter reunion.

“I don’t need something. I don’t want something from you… I’ve a dad,” she reportedly instructed him, channeling her signature SVU depth. “There was one thing about loyalty. I wished to be loyal to Mickey.”

The emotional complexity of discovering a hidden facet of her household weighed closely.

“Realizing I’m residing a lie my whole life,” she admitted, turned a painful reality to face. Sardelli, now in his late 80s, seems within the documentary alongside along with his two daughters, Mariska’s half-sisters.

Ultimately, Hargitay discovered peace and got here to know why her mom, Jayne Mansfield, returned to Mickey Hargitay. It was to supply stability.

Earlier than the Cannes premiere, she held a non-public screening in Las Vegas for her newfound siblings, and their response left her shaken.

“They only wept and wept and wept. These two ladies that I like a lot. I made them secrets and techniques!” she stated. “It’s so heartbreaking to me.”

Now 61, Hargitay says she lastly felt prepared to inform the reality. “I grew up the place I used to be imagined to… I’m Mickey Hargitay’s daughter, that’s not a lie.” She referred to as the movie a “love letter” to the person who raised her, including, “there’s nobody that I used to be nearer to on this planet.”

She additionally opened up about her remedy classes, the place she would usually drift off to sleep every time conversations veered too near painful reminiscences… “like a narcoleptic!” she joked.

She initially chalked it as much as exhaustion from the grueling hours of filming “Regulation & Order: SVU,” all whereas balancing life as a mom of three. However her therapist had one other idea. The sudden sleepiness was doubtless a deeply ingrained protection mechanism, defending her from confronting unresolved trauma.

To interrupt by means of it, she’d must face the disgrace tied to her intercourse image mom and eventually confront the long-hidden reality about her organic father.