Author: Madhurima Haque

It’s a phenomenon that has stumped even the brightest of minds: Why does Australia love Pink so much? It seems unfathomable an island nation tens of thousands of kilometres away from her native US could give her so much love. But the answer to the question is quite simple: it’s because she loves us back.READ MORE: Meghan shares previously unseen photos of Archie and LilibetAustralia’s love affair with Pink goes back years. (Getty)Pink’s love affair with Australia is 20 years in the making, with the singer – whose real name is Alecia Beth Moore – first stepping foot on our shores in 2004 with her Try This Tour. The now-45-year-old had more tours Down Under in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2013, 2018, 2023, and 2024, with extra visits in 2008 and 2009.In 2017, she confirmed what we all wanted to hear.  On local radio, she confirmed she “absolutely, 100 per cent” has a love affair with Australia, explaining exactly why.”I think that it’s just that we’re all just no bullshit, I think we have that in common,” she revealed on Nova’s Smallzy’s Surgery.She recalled the exact moment she realised “Australia was the place for me.”For a daily dose of 9Honey, subscribe to our newsletter hereThe ultimatum from a DJ that changed Pink’s life”I was on stage and I thought I was nailing it and the front row was so into me, and then this woman yelled something out at me and I thought it was something like, ‘I love you’ but it was actually, ‘I can’t hear you, you should tell them to turn your microphone up’,” she said.”I was like, ‘Oh, thanks I’ll do that’. And I think that’s what it was, no bullshit.”Journalist Amelia Adams thought the same after she interviewed the superstar for 60 Minutes in 2023.’It could be as simple as her very uncelebrity lack of airs and graces, but there is something Australians find very endearing about superstar Pink,” Adams said.READ MORE: Carey Hart apologises to Pink after landing himself in hospital again”I think that … we’re all just no bullshit, I think we have that in common,” she once said of her Aussie connection. (Getty)”She’s almost one of us. What you see is exactly what you get. She’s ferociously frank, has a wonderful sense of humour, and, to top it off, is an amazing and incredibly brave performer.”And there’s one other thing: she loves us as much as we love her.”In the same interview, the So What singer even confirmed she was thinking about making her “home away from home” her permanent one.While she currently lives in California with her husband Carey Hart and two children Willow, 13 , and Jameson, eight, the So What? singer shared her desire to make Australia her new home.”Last year, I was thinking about applying for citizenship; I am not even joking,” she said in the 2023 interview. She told her husband, “If we’re going somewhere, Carey, [Australia] is where we’re going.”There’s no place in Australia where the singer’s impact hasn’t been felt, with the star’s last tour ending with a bang in the coastal city of Townsville in North Queensland. Despite it being a long way away from the major Australian cities, the people of Townsville pulled out all the stops – from having cardboard cutouts of the star at the airport to lighting up their iconic Castle Hill pink with lights, they truly got this party started in her honour.Australia has been the site of many of her career highs, some of which were fulfilled just last year. Last year, while here on her Summer Carnival tour, she delivered an emotional message to fans Down Under.READ MORE: After eight-year hiatus, pregnant superstar returns to Cannes”She loves us [Aussies] as much as we love her,” Nine’s Amelia Adams says after interviewing the singer. (Instagram)”You get me, and you always have. We’ve grown up together over the last 20 years. And we’ve danced, laughed, screamed and cried together, too,” she gushed.”You’ve always been there for me, but this week I learned just how great your support has been.”She had just learned that her 2024 Summer Carnival Tour nabbed her the record of most career ticket sales ever achieved by an international performer in Australia and New Zealand. This tour alone broke multiple records, with the 20 stadium shows breaking a record for most shows across Australia and New Zealand in a single tour. READ MORE: Jessica Simpson makes her first TV appearance in 15 yearsAll the times Pink has visited AustraliaThe Australian and New Zealand Summer Carnival Tour leg sold almost one million tickets alone, making it the biggest ticket sales for any female headliner that’s toured Down Under.And it’s these numbers that pushed her into place to nab the record of most career ticket sales ever achieved by an international performer in Australia and New Zealand. The singer has had six tours in Australia over 20 years  – beginning with her Try This Tour in 2004 –  which altogether has sold more than 3.1 million tickets, also being the biggest for any tour by a female artist in Australia. READ MORE: Label detail sparks fierce debate over the right way to make a MiloThe singer has had six tours in Australia over 20 years, which altogether has sold more than 3.1 million tickets (Jordan Pannowitz)”I’m not often lost for words, but you really did it to me this week,” the superstar continued her message.”Your support is never lost on me and it’s a privilege to do this with you every day.”From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Here’s to another 20 years together”.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.

Mariska Hargitay is known for her long and storied acting career, playing the role of Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit since 1999, and now appearing in the same role in Law and Order: Organised Crime.But what some viewers might not realise is that it runs in the family.The actress has deep roots in Hollywood, thanks to her mother, ’50s bombshell and sex symbol Jayne Mansfield.Unfortunately, Mariska did not get to know her mother very well, with Mansfield having tragically passed away in a freak accident – one Mariska miraculously escaped from.READ MORE: Jennifer Lawrence opens up about her postpartum strugglesMariska Hargitay’s mother is late Hollywood bombshell Jayne Mansfield. (Nine)Mariska was born on January 23, 1964 as the youngest child of Mansfield and her second husband, Hungarian actor, body builder and former Mr. Universe 1955, Mickey Hargitay.The couple had met and fallen quickly in love in May 1956 and tied the knot in January 1958, days after her first divorce was finalised.After they wed, they took their show on the road. Mickey made his debut as an actor with a small part in Mansfield’s film Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957), before going on to be her leads in Italian films such as The Loves of Hercules (1960) and L’Amore Primitivo (1964).The couple also made a name for themselves touring in stage shows and nightclub acts as a performing team, with Mansfield sporting her iconic leopard-spot bikini. A highlight of the show was Mickey using his strength to toss Mansfield around his waist.For a daily dose of 9honey, subscribe to our newsletter hereMickey Hargitay and Mansfield had a whirlwind romance. (Bettmann Archive)Mariska has two older brothers, Miklós and Zoltán, as well as three half-siblings – Jayne Marie Mansfield and Antonio “Tony” Cimber, from her mother’s first marriage to Paul Mansfield and third marriage to Matt Climber respectively, as well as Tina Hargitay, from her father’s first marriage.Her parents were divorced in May 1963, before she was even born, but found their fast-tracked Mexican divorce was not recognised in America. They reconciled a few months before her birth in 1964, but soon separated again, with the divorce being recognised in August.Mariska would end up spending only three short years with her mother before she would witness her death before her own eyes.On that fateful night of June 29, 1967, Mansfield, her attorney and boyfriend Sam Brody, their 20-year-old driver Ronnie Harrison and her three children with her second husband were bundled up in a 1966 Buick Electra 225, leaving Biloxi, Mississippi after two shows there for New Orleans, where Mansfield was to appear on WDSU’s Midday Show the next day.READ MORE: Every stunning look spotted at the 78th annual Cannes Film FestivalMansfield holding her six-week-old daughter Mariska in March 1964. (Getty)The party never made it to their destination. At 2:30am, their car had slid under the back of a Johnson’ tractor-trailer, which in turn had slowed down to an insecticide fog-spraying truck.The accident took the top of the Electra clean off, killing the three adults in the front seat on impact. Mariska and her two brothers, who were asleep in the backseat, escaped with minor injuries.Thus began the urban legend that Mansfield was decapitated during the accident, with police crime scene photos showing the car with some blonde hair tangled in the front windshield, seemingly affirming the theories. Though Mansfield did die of severe head trauma, the decapitation theory has been debunked.Since her death, there has been a push to fit trucks with an underride guard to ensure horrific accidents like this don’t happen again. In America, this bar is sometimes called the “Mansfield bar”.READ MORE: 10 dog breeds with the shortest lifespansMariska in her mother’s arms, surrounded by her siblings and father Mickey. (Bettmann Archive)After her mother’s death, her father Mickey came to pick Mariska and her siblings up, raising them in Los Angeles with his new wife, airline stewardess Ellen Siano, who he wed in 1968.”The beauty is that families are made in so many different ways, and that was my reality as a child,” Mariska commented in a 2018 People interview “Growing up, my family was made in such an inter­esting and unique way.”Despite her mother’s legacy, Mariska did not like to be compared to her. Instead, she began her career following her father’s stead. At 18, having been newly crowned Miss Beverly Hills USA, she had told Time in 1982, “My dad was Mr. Universe, so it would be fun for me to be Miss Universe.”READ MORE: Jessica Simpson makes her first TV appearance in 15 yearsMariska had a close relationship with her father, Mickey. (Getty)She would go on to compete in Miss California USA and place fourth-runner-up before enjoying a short but action-packed film and TV career, before finally turning to her magnum opus, Law & Order: SVU.Mariska ended up becoming very close to her father, with the proud dad even once appearing in a 2003 episode of the show, making a cameo as a witness to a violent crime.She lost her father soon after in 2006, to cancer.For a daily dose of 9Honey, subscribe to our newsletter here.’No way’: Law & Order star reveals truth behind exit”It was huge to lose this person who was my everything, my strength, my power, the person who believed in me… But I got to say goodbye, and I remember it was very calm, and he just looked at me and he said, ‘Mariska… Always’,” he recalled.”I already carried his fire, the lessons that he taught me, his compas­sion, his love, his kindness. Now I do feel that he’s with me. Even though he’s not here physically, I carry him.”Almost 20 years after his death, she finally revealed the truth she had kept to herself for decades – Mickey Hargitay was not her real father.READ MORE: The $19 Reject Shop buy a professional organiser always uses to store the messiest toysHargitay and Mansfield at their wedding in 1958. (Getty)In her directorial debut My Mom Jayne – which premiered at Cannes Film Festival in 2025 – and a Vanity Fair exclusive, she revealed the shock truth to the world.The actress shared that she had always felt different to the rest of her family, but couldn’t put her finger on it until someone showed her a photo of Italian entertainer Nelson Sardelli in her twenties.When Mariska laid eyes on the snap, she said she immediately knew she was looking at her father. ”It was like the floor fell out from underneath me,” she recalled in her film, “Like my infrastructure dissolved.”Mansfield had a highly-publicised fling with Sardelli after filing for divorce from Mickey in 1963, before she again reconciled with her second husband months before Mariska’s birth in 1964.READ MORE: The ‘rock’ Biden will lean on amid cancer fightWhen she confronted her father with the fact, he immediately denied it, with the experience being so traumatising Mariska never brought up again in his lifetime.”He was my everything, my idol. He loved me so much, and I knew it,” she told Vanity Fair of the man she knew as her father.Nevertheless, curiosity got the best of her and she had to confirm the truth for herself. In her thirties, she went to Atlantic City in the US where Sardelli was performing.The moment she introduced herself to him he burst into tears, telling her, “I’ve been waiting 30 years for this moment”.But the actress wasn’t so welcoming. “I went full Olivia Benson on him… I was like, ‘I don’t want anything, I don’t need anything from you.… I have a dad,'” she told the outlet.READ MORE: Why this mum insists on eating dinner at 4:30pmNelson Sardelli in 2023. (WireImage)”There was something about loyalty. I wanted to be loyal to Mickey,” she acknowledged.Now 30 years on, she has since formed a bond with Sardelli and his daughters, even holding a private screening of the documentary for them, which they wept at.But the bond didn’t come easy, with the actress reckoning with the fact she was “living a lie my entire life”.Eventually, she came to the realisation her mother had done what she did in order to provide a stable home for her young daughter.”I grew up where I was supposed to, and I do know that everyone made the best choice for me,” she said, “I’m Mickey Hargitay’s daughter – that is not a lie.”READ MORE: Sober raves are the new trend sweeping the nation, but it’s about more than the musicMariska and half-sister Jayne Marie Mansfield at the ceremony honoring the actress with a Star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013. Mariska’s star is placed right next to her mother’s. (Getty)Despite not getting the chance to know her mother as intimately as she did her father, she says that all it takes to connect with her is to “look in the mirror… She’s with me still.”Mariska describes Mansfield as an intelligent and loving woman and mother, as well as being a sex symbol.”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,” she told People in 2018.In the Vanity Fair piece, she opened up about her like never before, speaking of the real impact of growing up the daughter of a Hollywood bombshell.She grew up mortified by her mother’s blonde bimbo image, most of all her fake breathy voice, saying “it used to just flip me out. I’d think, Why is she talking like that? That’s not real.”READ MORE: Queen Camilla introduces the world to her new puppyMariska Hargitay and mother Jayne Mansfield (hbo/instagram)Mickey would always assure her, saying “She wasn’t like that at all. She was like you. She was funny and irreverent and fearless and real.”But Mansfield’s legacy continued to impact the actress, with Mariska recalling, ”I just wanted my mum to be like the other mums! Like, Why are you always in a bathing suit? Why so much breast? I just wanted a maternal mother image… I was embarrassed by the choices that she made.”One of the most famous images of her mother – sitting alongside Sophia Loren as the Italian actress side-eyed her breasts popping out of her gown – had Mariska admitting, ”That was a rough one. To see another woman look at your mum like that was excruciating for me as a little girl.” READ MORE: Gwyneth Paltrow reveals the real story behind her infamous ‘This Smells Like My Vagina’ candleThis photo of Sophia Loren and Jayne Mansfield had Mariska admitting, ”That was a rough one.” (Bettmann Archive)It led her to go down a different path, growing up as a tomboy and later influencing the characters she would play as an actress.”I didn’t want to be that girl, and I was judgmental about it. That’s the honest answer,” she admitted.Mariska is best known for playing television’s longest-running character, Olivia Benson, a Violent Crimes detective in Law and Order: SVU for 26 years, a choice she finds “ironic”.”I’ve had so much strife and turmoil with this word mother – and here I was, this iconic mother figure in the culture.”Now 61, Mariska is a mother herself, having settled down and grown her family in an unconventional way.She met her husband, actor Peter Hermann, on the set of SVU in the early 2000s, marrying him in 2004.READ MORE: Domino’s launch bizarre new pizza creation – and it got us thinking about our favourites over the yearsMariska poses with a picture of her late mother at the 7th Directors Guild of America Honors in 2008. (Getty)They welcomed their son in 2006 before going on to adopt her next two children, a daughter and a son, both born and adopted in 2011.Living with the loss of her mother, yet her memory being very much alive in both home and career environments, has created a unique way to deal with loss for Mariska.”In my life, certainly I’ve tried to avoid pain, loss, feeling things. But I’ve learned instead to real­ly lean into it, because sooner or later you have to pay the piper,” she said.”I’m not saying it’s easy, and it certainly hasn’t been for me… There’s been a lot of darkness. But on the other side things can be so bright.”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.

Mariska Hargitay has dropped a bombshell family secret in her new film My Mom Jayne at its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.The Law and Order actress and daughter of the late Hollywood sex symbol Jayne Mansfield revealed a secret she has been sitting on for decades.In her directorial debut, she shared with audiences for the first time that her biological father was not in fact Mickey Hargitay, the Hungarian bodybuilding champion turned actor who wed her mother in 1956 and raised Mariska and her older brothers – Miklós “Mickey” Jr and Zoltán – after she died in a tragic car accident aged 34.READ MORE: ‘No way back for Prince Harry and Meghan’: Couple’s self-imposed exile is looking more permanent by the dayMariska Hargitay revealed the bombshell in her documentary My Mom Jayne. (Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)The actress shared in her documentary that she always felt different to the rest of her family after mother’s passing, but she didn’t know what it was until someone showed her a photo of Italian entertainer Nelson Sardelli in her twenties.Her mother had famously had a romance with Sardelli after filing for divorce from Mickey in 1963, only to reconcile with her former husband many months before Mariska was born in 1964.When Mariska laid eyes on the photo, she said she immediately knew she was looking at her father. ”It was like the floor fell out from underneath me,” she recalled in her film, My Mom Jayne. “Like my infrastructure dissolved.”For a daily dose of 9Honey, subscribe to our newsletter here’No way’: Law & Order star reveals truth behind exitWhen she confronted Mickey though, he immediately denied it. The experience was so traumatising that she never dared to mention it to him again.”He was my everything, my idol. He loved me so much, and I knew it,” she said of the man she knew as her father, who died in 2006.But she couldn’t shake the skeleton in her closet, deciding in her thirties to go and see Sardelli perform in Atlantic City in the US in person. The moment she introduced herself to him he burst into tears, telling her, “I’ve been waiting 30 years for this moment”.READ MORE: The ‘taboo’ question that convinced Jess Fox to pose in her undies in front of the nationMickey Hargitay with Zoltan, Mikos, Mariska (in Jayne Mansfield’s arms) and Jayne Maria her daughter from a previous marriage. (Bettmann Archive)Mariska wasn’t so forthcoming, telling Vanity Fair, “I went full Olivia Benson on him… 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,” she acknowledged.Now 61, Mariska has since formed a bond with Sardelli and his daughters, but it came with a lot of confusion.READ MORE: ‘We get competitive about family anecdotes’: How the Moriarty sisters took over Aussie bookshelvesNelson Sardelli in 2023. (WireImage)She says she spent a lot of time thinking about ”knowing I’m living a lie my entire life,” and wondering whether she was a wanted or “illegitimate” mistake.Over time she said came to the realisation that her mother had returned to her former husband to provide a stable home for her young daughter.”I grew up where I was supposed to, and I do know that everyone made the best choice for me,” she told the outlet.”I’m Mickey Hargitay’s daughter – that is not a lie.”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.

Activist and actor Michael J. Fox will be making his return to acting five years after announcing his retirement for a very special project.The beloved actor, who retired due to health complications stemming from his diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, is due to share the screen with another Hollywood legend in TV show Shrinking in a guest role.Shrinking follows Jason Segel as Jimmy Laird, a grieving therapist mourning his wife by telling his clients what he really thinks and causing trouble. There to help clean up the mess is Dr. Paul Rhoades, played by Harrison Ford.READ MORE: ‘No way back for Prince Harry and Meghan’: Couple’s self-imposed exile is looking more permanent by the day