Greatest Bombshells from ‘My Mother Jayne,’ Mariska Hargitay’s Documentary About Mother

Fifty-seven years after the loss of life of Jayne Mansfield, Mariska Hargitay set out on a mission to rediscover the Hollywood legend — not as a siren of the display, however as her mother.

Hargitay, 61, the fourth of Mansfield’s 5 youngsters and beloved for her record-breaking function as Olivia Benson on Regulation & Order: SVU, has now made her function movie directorial debut with My Mother Jayne, a documentary about her mom’s life.

When Hargitay was simply three years previous, she, alongside along with her two older brothers, survived the automotive wreck that killed Mansfield, then simply 34, in 1967.

My Mother Jayne, which premiered on the Cannes Movie Pageant on Might 17, options never-before-seen images and residential movies of Mansfield as Hargitay seeks to raised perceive the mom she barely knew.

The documentary additionally reveals stunning, and a few surprising, truths about Hargitay’s life that she’s by no means shared — till now.

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Hargitay’s organic father is an Italian man named Nelson Sardelli

For the very first time, Hargitay reveals a household secret that she’s saved for greater than 30 years. Her organic father shouldn’t be Mickey Hargitay, the person who raised her, however reasonably a person named Nelson Sardelli.

When Hargitay was 25, the actress first discovered of Sardelli, a former Las Vegas entertainer. Upon seeing a photograph of him, she was struck by their apparent bodily resemblance. After confronting Mickey Hargitay, Hargitay was left much more confused when Mickey insisted he was her father. Hargitay grappled with the query of whether or not she was Hungarian like Mickey or Italian like Sardelli. By the point she was 30, Hargitay determined to drive to one among Sardelli’s exhibits to fulfill him. “I’ve been ready 30 years for this second,” Hargitay remembers Sardelli saying to her once they first met.

Sardelli remains to be alive at present. Hargitay has two half-sisters by way of her organic father, each of whom are featured within the documentary.

Hargitay was first left within the automotive wreckage whereas her brothers have been rescued

Hargitay’s brothers, Zoltan and Mickey Jr., share their recollections of the automotive accident that claimed their mom’s life, together with how Hargitay, then solely 3 years previous, wasn’t instantly rescued. A tiny Hargitay had sustained a head damage, and she or he ended up lodged beneath the passenger seat the place emergency personnel missed her once they pulled her brothers from the wreckage. After being pushed away from the crash website, Zoltan seemed round solely to search out his sister was missing–and she was rapidly rescued.

Zoltan additionally remembers how, simply previous to the crash, Mansfield had been sitting within the backseat of the automotive along with her three youngsters. She then moved as much as the entrance passenger seat beside her lawyer, Sam Brody, who was additionally killed within the crash. Had Mansfield solely remained within the backseat, she might need survived the accident alongside along with her youngsters.

Jayne Mansfield could have been a survivor of home abuse

Hargitay additionally briefly interviews her youthful brother, Tony Cimber, from her mom’s third marriage to Matt Cimber, who could have bodily abused their mom. Whereas they do not go in depth, Hargitay’s brother Mickey Jr. shares recollections of Mansfield carrying sun shades, even indoors, solely to search out that his mom was hiding two black eyes.

Jayne Mansfield’s father died in a automotive accident when she was 3 years previous

Mansfield misplaced her father in an eerily related manner: in a automotive crash on the age of three. Hargitay opens up about how, whereas she did not actually get the possibility to know her mom, dropping a dad or mum in that manner at that age was one thing that they had in frequent.

My Mother Jayne will even premiere on the Tribeca Movie Pageant on June 13.