Mariska Hargitay breaks silence on paternity secret in Cannes premiere of ‘My Mom Jayne'
When Mariska Hargitay walked the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, few expected the
Law and Order SVU
actress to deliver one of the most personal revelations of her life on screen. Yet her new documentary
My Mom Jayne
, which is also her feature film directorial debut, tells the story she had kept hidden for over three decades.
Hargitay's film not only honors her late mother, Hollywood icon Jayne Mansfield, but also unearths a family secret that redefined her sense of identity. In front of an audience that gave a five-minute standing ovation, she shared what she first learned at 25, that the man who raised her, Mickey Hargitay, may not have been her biological father.
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Instead, that man was Nelson Sardelli, a former Las Vegas entertainer and, as Mariska reveals, her biological parent.
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The quiet weight of a hidden lineage
Hargitay's emotional journey to the truth began with a confrontation. After learning of Sardelli's connection to her at age 25, she asked Mickey Hargitay about it. Despite his insistence that he was her father, they never discussed it again. Yet the knowledge quietly unraveled something inside her.
In her interview with
Vanity Fair
, Hargitay recalled watching Sardelli perform in Atlantic City five years later, then meeting him backstage. Overcome with emotion, Sardelli told her, 'I've been waiting 30 years for this moment.' Still, Hargitay, known for her fierce on-screen role as Olivia Benson, brought that same energy to the real-life moment: 'I was like, 'I don't want anything, I don't need anything from you.… I have a dad.' '
This tension between truth and loyalty defined her inner conflict. 'There was something about loyalty. I wanted to be loyal to Mickey,' she said, grappling with 'knowing I'm living a lie my entire life.'
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A family rewritten, a bond restored
The
My Mom Jayne
documentary doesn't just explore Mariska's own journey, but also features her half sisters who are also daughters of Sardelli and had been kept a secret from the world. 'These two women that I love so much — I made them secrets! It's so heartbreaking to me,' she said.
The three women recently held a private screening in Las Vegas, where emotions ran high. 'They just wept and wept and wept,' Hargitay told
Vanity Fair
, underscoring how decades of silence gave way to a long-overdue connection.
Despite the paternity revelation, Hargitay remains firm in her bond with Mickey. '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.'
Cannes honors a daughter's love letter to her past
The Cannes screening was more than a film premiere, it was a public reckoning with a deeply personal history. Hargitay's husband, Peter Hermann, and their three children joined her for the emotional debut. Through it all,
My Mom Jayne
remains a tribute to the man she calls 'the one I was closest to on this planet.'
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'I wanted to unburden all of us,' she explained of her decision to tell her story now. In doing so, she created not only a piece of cinema, but a moment of healing.
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