Mariska Hargitay has spoken about the second her world fell apart in a trailer for her new documentary, which includes previously-unknown details of her family life.
The Law and Order star is set to make her directorial debut in her film My Mom Jayne, delving into the life and legacy of her mum, Hollywood icon Jayne Mansfield, who died in a tragic car accident aged 34 when she was a toddler.
In the new trailer, Hargitay, 61, recounted a moment that felt like the “floor fell out” beneath her just weeks after divulging a bombshell secret.
Watch the video above.
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“Something that I’ve also realised, keeping a secret doesn’t honour anyone,” the star said at one point in a voiceover.
The trailer then cuts to an old clip of Mansfield’s ex-husband and Mariska’s father, Mickey Hargitay.
“She always had me. She knew that,” he said of Mansfield.
“But seems like, at times, it wasn’t enough.”
Mickey, who died in 2006, was married to Mansfield from 1958 to 1964.
He raised Mariska and her brothers – Miklós “Mickey” Jr and Zoltán – after Mansfield died in 1967.
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“I pulled out this picture,” Mariska then recounted.
“Couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was like the floor fell out from underneath me.
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
The screen panned to the star embracing her brother Zoltán, who was tearing up.
“Reclaiming our family story. That is what this is about for me. Because she is a part of me. I want to know her as Jayne. My mom Jayne.”
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The bombshell secret seemingly refers to Mariska discovering Mickey, the man who raised her and she grew up thinking was her dad, is not in fact her biological father.
This major revelation became public to the world just last month after her documentary’s premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
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In the film, Mariska reveals her biological father is Italian entertainer Nelson Sardelli.
Mansfield had a romance with the Italian entertainer after filing for divorce from Mickey in 1963. She got back with Mickey just months before Mariska was born in 1964.
Hollywood star’s rare public appearance with lookalike daughter
Mariska reveals in the documentary how she came to the realisation Sardelli was her father after being shown a photo of him.
The actress said it was “like my infrastructure dissolved.”
Mariska met Sardelli in the thirties.
During their meeting, she had told the entertainer, ‘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.”
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