Mariska Hargitay discovered parental truth from head of her mom's fab club
Mariska Hargitay discovered the truth about her parentage from the head of her late mother's fan club.
The 61-year-old actress - whose mom, actress Jayne Mansfield, was killed in a car accident when she was a baby - recently revealed that she had discovered in her 20s that her dad was actually Italian entertainer Nelson Sardelli, who her mother had dated following a brief split from her spouse, Mickey Hargitay, who Mariska had grown up believing was her biological parent.
And she has now opened up on how the truth was first revealed.
Speaking on the Call Her Daddy podcast, she said: "It was so rough. I had been invited to this guy named Sabin Gray's house, and he was head of the Jayne Mansfield fan club, and he was this lovely guy and just obsessed with Jayne and loved her so much and was a huge collector of memorabilia and movie posters and anything related to her...
"He's showing me all these photos, he's showing me, whatever it is, dresses that she had that he collected, earrings that she wore, things from movies, from the movie set, props or whatever and then he says to me, 'Do you want to see a picture of Nelson?' And I just looked at him, and this jolt went through my body, and I said, 'Who's Nelson?' and then I knew in one second.
"I saw the blood drain out of [Sabin's] face, and he sort of panicked and turned white, and then he said, 'Oh, it's probably not true, it's probably not true.'
"And that's when I knew and I think that he couldn't believe that I didn't know. I was 25. How could I not know? And I understand that, and then, he says, 'It's not true. I'm sure it's not true,' and then he showed me his picture."
But the 'Law and Order: SUV' star realised the truth "on a cellular level, it was just like DNA talking to DNA" when she saw a picture of Nelson, and it made her feel her life was "over".
Mariska - who has August, 18, Amaya, 14, and Andrew, 13, with husband Peter Hermann - spoke with one of her brothers, who didn't know the real story and then went off to speak to Mickey.
She recalled: "I was hysterically crying and in a state and hear about this metaphor; My dad was building me, physically building me, a house, so I drive up to the house that he is building me and confront him, and he was like, 'What? What are you talking about? Are you crazy? That's so not true.
"He kept saying, 'You look like my father, you look exactly like my father. You're a Hargitay to the end,' and the irony is that I'm more like my dad than anyone in our whole family. I am mini Mickey. And so it was just a very extraordinarily painful moment."
The pair never spoke of it again and Mariska is unsure if Mickey - who died in 2006 - ever knew the real truth.
She said: "I pretended that I believed him and we never spoke of it again, and then he used to say, even before he died, 'Remember when you thought that crazy thing?' and I'd go, 'I know, wasn't that nuts?'
"I'll never know [if he knew]. I think that he integrated it [like] 'this is my new reality.' He made a choice, and that was his new truth and whether it's true or not emotionally, it was his truth.
"I understand it because I have two adopted kids, and they are no different, no different than my biological son, and so I go, 'I get it.' It didn't matter. It doesn't matter."
Mariska is now in contact with Nelson and his three daughters.
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Giulia Cacopardo, a 28-year-old representative of the "No Space for Bezos" movement, complained that the needs of ordinary people were being neglected in a city that is a tourist magnet and fast depopulating largely due to the soaring cost of living. Venice's city centre has less than 50,000 residents, compared to almost 100,000 in the late 1970s. "When you empty a city of its inhabitants, you can turn it into a stage for big events," Cacopardo told Reuters. "(But) the money that Bezos spends on this wedding does not end up in the pockets of Venetians. The owners of luxury hotels are not Venetians." Cacopardo was one of 30-40 activists who staged a protest in St Mark's Square on Thursday, chanting, "We are the 99 per cent" as a masked couple posed as bride and groom and one man climbed a pole to unfurl a banner reading "The one per cent ruins the world". Police intervened, forcibly removing the protesters. The anti-Bezos front is planning a march on Saturday, and their activities have already led authorities to step up security and move the location of the closing party to a more secluded part of Venice, the Arsenale former shipyard. Charlotte Perkins, an Australian tourist, said she could understand the locals' resentment at their city being treated as a celebrity playground. "I'd probably feel the same if I lived here," she said. But politicians, hoteliers and some other Venice residents are happy about the wedding, saying such events do more to support the local economy than the multitudes of day-trippers who normally overrun the city. "We are happy and honoured to welcome Jeff Bezos and his consort Lauren Sanchez," mayor Luigi Brugnaro said. Bezos, Amazon's executive chair, got engaged to Sanchez in 2023, four years after the collapse of his 25-year marriage to MacKenzie Scott. with AP Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and journalist Lauren Sanchez have married in a lavish Venice wedding, after multiple days of star-studded nuptial events. Sánchez, 55, posted to Instagram a photo of herself beaming in a white gown as she stood alongside a tuxedo-clad Bezos, the world's fourth-richest man. The bride wore a classic mermaid-line gown, featuring Dolce & Gabbana's signature Italian lace. A traditional tulle-and-lace veil completed her look. "Not just a gown, a piece of poetry," she wrote on Instagram, where her name now appears as Lauren Sánchez Bezos. Friday night's ceremony had no legal status under Italian law, a senior city hall official told Reuters, suggesting the couple may have already legally wed in the United States, avoiding the bureaucracy associated with an Italian marriage. The festivities, estimated to cost about $US50 million ($A77 million), culminate on Saturday with a party in a former medieval shipyard where media outlets say Lady Gaga and Elton John are set to perform. Bill Gates, Leonardo DiCaprio, Orlando Bloom, Tom Brady, the queen of Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, Kris Jenner and Kim and Khloe Kardashian as well as Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner and Domenico Dolce from Dolce & Gabbana are among the 200-250 guests. Amid tight security, there have been glimpses of the celebrities moving around town, the women in summer dresses and high heels stepping somewhat gingerly off boats ferrying them around the city's canals. Celebrations began on Thursday evening in the cloisters of Madonna dell'Orto, a medieval church in the central district of Cannaregio that hosts masterpieces by 16th-century painter Tintoretto. "This magical place has gifted us unforgettable memories," the bride and groom said on their wedding invitation, in which they asked for "no gifts" and pledged charity donations for three Venetian institutions. Their donations are worth three million euros ($A5.4 million). Businesses have welcomed the glitz and glamour but it is opposed by a local protest movement whose members resent what they see as Venice being gift-wrapped for ultra-rich outsiders. Bezos, 61, is No.4 on Forbes' global billionaires list. Giulia Cacopardo, a 28-year-old representative of the "No Space for Bezos" movement, complained that the needs of ordinary people were being neglected in a city that is a tourist magnet and fast depopulating largely due to the soaring cost of living. Venice's city centre has less than 50,000 residents, compared to almost 100,000 in the late 1970s. "When you empty a city of its inhabitants, you can turn it into a stage for big events," Cacopardo told Reuters. "(But) the money that Bezos spends on this wedding does not end up in the pockets of Venetians. The owners of luxury hotels are not Venetians." Cacopardo was one of 30-40 activists who staged a protest in St Mark's Square on Thursday, chanting, "We are the 99 per cent" as a masked couple posed as bride and groom and one man climbed a pole to unfurl a banner reading "The one per cent ruins the world". Police intervened, forcibly removing the protesters. The anti-Bezos front is planning a march on Saturday, and their activities have already led authorities to step up security and move the location of the closing party to a more secluded part of Venice, the Arsenale former shipyard. Charlotte Perkins, an Australian tourist, said she could understand the locals' resentment at their city being treated as a celebrity playground. "I'd probably feel the same if I lived here," she said. But politicians, hoteliers and some other Venice residents are happy about the wedding, saying such events do more to support the local economy than the multitudes of day-trippers who normally overrun the city. "We are happy and honoured to welcome Jeff Bezos and his consort Lauren Sanchez," mayor Luigi Brugnaro said. Bezos, Amazon's executive chair, got engaged to Sanchez in 2023, four years after the collapse of his 25-year marriage to MacKenzie Scott. with AP Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and journalist Lauren Sanchez have married in a lavish Venice wedding, after multiple days of star-studded nuptial events. Sánchez, 55, posted to Instagram a photo of herself beaming in a white gown as she stood alongside a tuxedo-clad Bezos, the world's fourth-richest man. The bride wore a classic mermaid-line gown, featuring Dolce & Gabbana's signature Italian lace. A traditional tulle-and-lace veil completed her look. "Not just a gown, a piece of poetry," she wrote on Instagram, where her name now appears as Lauren Sánchez Bezos. Friday night's ceremony had no legal status under Italian law, a senior city hall official told Reuters, suggesting the couple may have already legally wed in the United States, avoiding the bureaucracy associated with an Italian marriage. The festivities, estimated to cost about $US50 million ($A77 million), culminate on Saturday with a party in a former medieval shipyard where media outlets say Lady Gaga and Elton John are set to perform. Bill Gates, Leonardo DiCaprio, Orlando Bloom, Tom Brady, the queen of Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, Kris Jenner and Kim and Khloe Kardashian as well as Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner and Domenico Dolce from Dolce & Gabbana are among the 200-250 guests. Amid tight security, there have been glimpses of the celebrities moving around town, the women in summer dresses and high heels stepping somewhat gingerly off boats ferrying them around the city's canals. Celebrations began on Thursday evening in the cloisters of Madonna dell'Orto, a medieval church in the central district of Cannaregio that hosts masterpieces by 16th-century painter Tintoretto. "This magical place has gifted us unforgettable memories," the bride and groom said on their wedding invitation, in which they asked for "no gifts" and pledged charity donations for three Venetian institutions. Their donations are worth three million euros ($A5.4 million). Businesses have welcomed the glitz and glamour but it is opposed by a local protest movement whose members resent what they see as Venice being gift-wrapped for ultra-rich outsiders. Bezos, 61, is No.4 on Forbes' global billionaires list. Giulia Cacopardo, a 28-year-old representative of the "No Space for Bezos" movement, complained that the needs of ordinary people were being neglected in a city that is a tourist magnet and fast depopulating largely due to the soaring cost of living. Venice's city centre has less than 50,000 residents, compared to almost 100,000 in the late 1970s. "When you empty a city of its inhabitants, you can turn it into a stage for big events," Cacopardo told Reuters. "(But) the money that Bezos spends on this wedding does not end up in the pockets of Venetians. The owners of luxury hotels are not Venetians." Cacopardo was one of 30-40 activists who staged a protest in St Mark's Square on Thursday, chanting, "We are the 99 per cent" as a masked couple posed as bride and groom and one man climbed a pole to unfurl a banner reading "The one per cent ruins the world". Police intervened, forcibly removing the protesters. The anti-Bezos front is planning a march on Saturday, and their activities have already led authorities to step up security and move the location of the closing party to a more secluded part of Venice, the Arsenale former shipyard. Charlotte Perkins, an Australian tourist, said she could understand the locals' resentment at their city being treated as a celebrity playground. "I'd probably feel the same if I lived here," she said. But politicians, hoteliers and some other Venice residents are happy about the wedding, saying such events do more to support the local economy than the multitudes of day-trippers who normally overrun the city. "We are happy and honoured to welcome Jeff Bezos and his consort Lauren Sanchez," mayor Luigi Brugnaro said. Bezos, Amazon's executive chair, got engaged to Sanchez in 2023, four years after the collapse of his 25-year marriage to MacKenzie Scott. with AP
The Age
16 hours ago
- The Age
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez marry in Venice ceremony
Venice: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and journalist Lauren Sanchez have married in an extravagant wedding ceremony, the centrepiece of a three-day gala featuring dozens of stars but also protests by local activists. Sanchez, 55, waved and blew kisses to onlookers as she boarded a sleek motorboat outside the Aman hotel to head to the ceremony, wearing short-sleeved, cream, fitted skirt suit, with shades and a headscarf to protect her from the blistering summer sun. Around two hours later Bezos, 61, wearing a black tuxedo and bow tie over a white shirt, made the same short trip across the lagoon to the small island of San Giorgio where the couple exchanged rings, accompanied by singing from Matteo Bocelli, son of Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli. Vogue magazine shared a photograph of the bride on social media, saying her Dolce & Gabbana high-necked wedding dress was inspired by the one Sophia Loren wore in the 1958 film Houseboat. The evening ceremony will have no legal status under Italian law, a senior city hall official told Reuters, suggesting the couple may have already legally wed in the United States, avoiding the bureaucracy associated with an Italian marriage. The festivities, estimated to cost around $US50 million ($76 million), culminate on Saturday (Sunday AEST) with a party in a former medieval shipyard where media outlets say Lady Gaga and Elton John are set to perform. Bill Gates, Leonardo DiCaprio, Orlando Bloom, Tom Brady, the queen of Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, Kris Jenner and Kim and Khloe Kardashian as well as Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner and Domenico Dolce from Dolce & Gabbana are among the 200-250 guests. Amid tight security, there have been glimpses of the celebrities moving around town, the women in summer dresses and high heels stepping somewhat gingerly off boats ferrying them around the city's canals.
