Mariska Hargitay Was “Living a Lie” for Years. Now She’s Embracing Her Famed Mother

Mariska Hargitay Was “Living a Lie” for Years. Now She’s Embracing Her Famed Mother—and Biological Father + 1

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Mariska Hargitay Was “Living a Lie” for Years. Now She’s Embracing Her Famed Mother—and Biological Father

BY JOY PRESS

Mariska Hargitay is best known for patrolling the streets of New York as Law & Order: SVU’s Captain Olivia Benson, but in real life, she is a daughter of Hollywood royalty. Her mother, bombshell Jayne Mansfield, died when Hargitay was just three. In an exclusive interview, Hargitay opens up about her complicated relationship with Mansfield’s sexualized legacy (“Why are you always in a bathing suit? Why so much breast?”), which is partially the subject of her new documentary, My Mom Jayne. Hargitay also publicly reveals, for the first time, the dark secret about her family that she’s been guarding for decades. “I’m not good with lies,” she says. “So I also made this movie to unburden all of us.”