Mariska Hargitay is sharing a family secret—she is now not biologically a Hargitay.

The 61-365 days-worn revealed her unhurried dad Mickey Hargitay, who raised her after her mother Jayne Mansfield died in a 1967 vehicle accident that the Law & Expose: SVU actress survived as a child, is now not her biological father. That would be Brazilian-born Italian singer Nelson Sardelli, 90. When Mariska used to be 30, she watched him make in Atlantic City after which presented herself. In personality.

“I went burly Olivia Benson on him,” she suggested Arrogance Intellectual in an interview revealed Would possibly presumably presumably well additionally 17, adding. “I was like, ‘I don't favor one thing, I don't need one thing from you…I surely get a dad.'”

Nelson, she acknowledged, burst into tears upon meeting her, telling her, “I've been waiting 30 years for this second.”

In 1962, Jayne filed for divorce from the Hungarian-born actor—her costar in motion photos much like The Loves of Hercules—and later turn out to be romantically interested with Nelson. She and Mickey reconciled earlier than Mariska used to be born in 1964, Arrogance Intellectual reported, nevertheless finalized their divorce later that 365 days.

Rumors about the identification of her biological father get floated for years. Mariska's paternal heritage and Jayne's relationships with both the Hungarian-born actor and Nelson get been detailed in the unhurried actress' extinct press secretary Raymond Strait's 1992 e book Here They Are Jayne Mansfield.

And this previous April, without a doubt one of his fans shared a photograph of himself with the singer on Instagram, noting that “his daughter is Mariska Hargitay.”

The actress suspected such for a whereas earlier than meeting him. She acknowledged that when she used to be in her 20s, she made the realization after any individual showed her a photograph of the longtime Vegas performer.

“It used to be like the bottom fell out from under me,” she says in the upcoming documentary My Mom Jayne. “Contend with my infrastructure dissolved.”

But in step with Arrogance Intellectual, when she confronted Mickey about it, he denied it, and he or she never mentioned Nelson every other time to her dad. The actor—who also shared with Jayne young of us Mickey “Miklos” Jr., now 66, and Zoltan, 64, and helped lift her daughter Jayne Marie, 74, from a outdated relationship—died at age 80 in 2006.

Mariska acknowledged that after the come across with Nelson in Atlantic City, she did discontinue up bonding with him and the daughters he raised. And whereas she struggled for a whereas “sparkling I'm residing a lie my entire life,” she in the slay realized one thing critical about her upbringing.

“I grew up the put I was presupposed to, and I enact know that everybody made the largest desire for me,” she acknowledged. “I’m Mickey Hargitay’s daughter—that is now not a lie.”

Explore succor at Mariska's family photo album.