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Fox News
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Mariska Hargitay shares the surprising way she discovered her biological father's identity
Print Close By Brie Stimson Published June 28, 2025 The Mariska Hargitay-directed documentary "My Mom Jayne" covers a lot of ground about actress Jayne Mansfield's life and about Hargitay's attempts to reconnect with the memory of her mother. The film had its share of bombshells, most notably that Hargitay found out as an adult that the man who raised her wasn't her biological father and that, in the chaos of the car crash that killed her mother, Hargitay was left behind at the scene as a 3-year-old. The documentary also reveals that Mansfield hungered to be a serious actress despite her "dumb blonde" image. Mariska found out that Mickey Hargitay wasn't her biological father Hargitay revealed for the first time in the documentary that Mickey Hargitay wasn't her biological father as she believed her entire childhood. MARISKA HARGITAY STUNS IN CANNES AFTER REVEALING SHOCKING FAMILY SECRET When she was 25, she said she was talking with the head of Jayne Mansfield's fan club, Sabin Gray, and he inadvertently told her about her biological father. "He's showing me all these photos," the "Law & Order: SVU" star told Alex Cooper this week on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast. "He's showing me whatever it is, dresses that she had that he'd 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?'" She added, "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." She said in the documentary, "That's when like I think the blood just drained out of his face and he sort of went white as a ghost and he looked at me panicked and he said, 'Well, it's probably not true,'" adding that he then showed her pictures of a man who "looked like the male version of me." She told Cooper, "And I think that (Gray) couldn't believe that I didn't know. I was 25, how could I not know?" She said in the film, "It was like the floor fell out from underneath me. Just the bottom dropped out of everything. It was like my infrastructure dissolved and life as I knew it was irrevocably changed." She told Cooper that she felt like she was going to crash her car after she left Sabin's house "because I was so not present. I was totally dissociated and out of my body, and I got to my brother's house. I didn't even know how I got there, but I knew that I shouldn't be driving. It was crazy." After that, she said she then confronted her father, asking him, "Why didn't you tell me you're not my father? You lied to me." 'LAW & ORDER: SVU' STAR MARISKA HARGITAY'S REAL-LIFE HERO MOMENT ON LIVE TV But he told her that was "bulls---." "I was in so much pain," she said in the documentary, "but I could see his pain was almost worse, so I decided I would never talk about it again, and I would never bring it up to him again, and I never did," she said. "But the fact is I had bad years after that." She said she didn't tell anyone, and would just go to bed crying every night for a long time. Hargitay had an identity crisis over the revelation. "Who was I related to? Who did I belong to? And then, on top of it, I was born out of some affair like some illegitimate, sinful mistake? I was so angry at my mother for leaving me in this mess and for hurting my father and for leaving me feeling so alone and untethered," she admitted. She said for her own survival she "disowned the part of myself that was my mother's daughter." Meeting her biological father When she was 30, she decided to go see her biological father, Nelson Sardelli, who was performing in Atlantic City at the time. "And after the show he came out and I said, 'Hi, Nelson, my name is Mariska Hargitay. I understand you knew my mother,'" she said. He burst into tears and told her "'I've been waiting 30 years for this moment,'" she said, adding that they stayed up until 5 in the morning talking that night, and he told her what had happened. SOPHIA LOREN AND JAYNE MANSFIELD: THE STORY BEHIND THAT INFAMOUS SNAP "That was 30 years ago, and I've kept it a secret ever since," she added. Sardelli said he met Mansfield in Atlanta, and she asked him to see her show. When the show was over, she asked to go for a ride in his car. He said that at the time Mansfield and Hargitay weren't talking to each other, and she and Sardelli began publicly dating, and he was even introduced to her kids. They performed together, made a movie together and went all over Europe together. He found out Mansfield was pregnant with his child while they were in Europe. Hargitay read a letter in the documentary that Mansfield wrote to her mother talking about "going through perhaps the most trying time" of her life while she was pregnant with Hargitay and having "the love of two men – a very deep love from each of them. I hope God shows me the way soon because I have really been depressed as of late." Sardelli said in the documentary that he broke up with her in Europe, and they never spoke again, which he called the "biggest shame" of his life, acknowledging "a lot of people paid the price for this love affair that we had." "I can't imagine what your father felt, but I am grateful to him," he said. He told Hargitay after Mansfield died, her grandmother wanted him to "rock the boat and claim you or something but by that time Mickey was the father you knew, and your siblings they were your siblings. What would I be accomplishing that would be beneficial to you?" JAYNE MANSFIELD'S FATAL CAR CRASH CHANGED ELAINE STEVENS' LIFE FOREVER Years later, he said he talked to Mickey once and Hargitay told him, "'Nelson, nobody has to tell me who's the father of my child,' and I said to him, 'I will not embarrass you in any way. Never.'" Hargitay's stepmom told her that if Sardelli ever came up in conversation, he would only tell her, "I'm her father, period." "Mickey was a great father, and he was so full of love for you, but I think Mickey was quite capable of shutting out pain, which I think he did a lot with Jayne, so he said Mariska's my daughter, and he said that until the day he passed," she added. Hargitay said she spent 30 years trying to hide her story "to honor my dad, but something that I've also realized is that sometimes keeping a secret doesn't honor anyone." Reacting to the truth being revealed for the first time in her documentary, Sardelli said it felt like a "stronger, higher power is forgiving me. There is nothing I can change, but I regret having extricated myself from your mother's life because I think certain things would not have happened to her." He added that he'd like to be able to have one more conversation with Mickey and apologize to him, "because I'm sure I was part of his suffering." Hargitay added, "I've spent most of my life feeling ashamed of my mother, a person who I had no memory of, a person whose voice I didn't want to hear, a person's whose career made me want to do it differently, a person who made her share of problematic choices and left me with loss and secrets, but at 60 years old I feel different." Hargitay also met her half-siblings Giovanna and Pietra Sardelli, who kept the secret as well. Giovanna said she once confronted her father as a child after finding a secret letter he'd kept written from Mansfield's mother, telling him he had an "amazing child that's yours," but he told Giovanna that Hargitay is a "little girl, has a father who loves her like I love you. This little girl is safe." Pietra interjected, "'And if she is OK, she just lost her mother. You cannot take the only family she knows,' and that was their decision and that's why they stayed quiet." MARISKA HARGITAY OPENS UP ABOUT LOSING HER MOM JAYNE MANSFIELD AS A CHILD: 'THERE'S NO GUARANTEES' "And that made sense to me and I tucked that away." Giovanna said, adding that she remembered coming years later to Mariska's birthday party and telling Katie Couric when the journalist asked, that they weren't related, they were just family friends. "My need to honor Mickey was so huge, but the fact is I was wrong, because you guys had to live all these years with the secret, and you were so generous, so generous to me," Hargitay told her sisters. Hargitay was left behind after deadly crash While the documentary doesn't go into a lot of detail about the Mississippi crash that killed Mansfield and two others, Hargitay's brother Zolton Hargitay, who was 6 at the time, said he remembered his mother had been sitting in the back seat with the children before moving into the front seat. He said she had been arguing with her boyfriend, then she got out of the car and called their father before she moved into the front seat. Zoltan remembered her comforting him before the crash, "telling me I was going to be fine, 20 minutes later, half an hour, whatever, I heard her scream so loud, and that was it – just silence." The car had crashed into a tractor trailer that had slowed down around 2 in the morning on June 29, 1967, killing Mansfield, her boyfriend and the driver of the car. Mariska, Zoltan and Mickey Hargitay, Jr. were in the back seat at the time and survived. "I often think about why she didn't just stay in the back seat with us," Zolton said through tears. Zoltan said he remembered being in a car on the way to the hospital and looking around before saying, "Where's Maria?" referring to Mariska. "And they said 'Who's Maria,' so then we doubled back." Ellen Hargitay, Mariska's stepmom, said when they went back, she was found "lodged underneath the passenger seat with a head injury and – thank God, thank God Zolie woke up." Mansfield had no will when she died at 34 Mansfield didn't have a will at the time of her death at 34 years old in 1967, "So the state sold off her belongings to pay her debts and there were just a handful of items that my siblings and I were able to keep," Hargitay explained in the doc. She added, "For me, a lot of this is about reclaiming what was lost. Even physical things." Hargitay finally went through the family storage unit, which she said hadn't been opened since 1969, two years after her mother's death. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER A poignant moment near the end of the film showed Hargitay's husband, Peter Hermann, surprising her with Mansfield's piano. The actress was both a pianist and violinist. Mickey wasn't over Mansfield when he married Hargitay's stepmom Hargitay's stepmom, Ellen Hargitay, said she's sure Mansfield's widower was "not over her" when they met and started dating. "Because she passed away June 29, 1967, and Mickey and I got married in April of 1968. But you always have them with you," she said. "There's no way when you love somebody that they ever leave your heart. I don't care who, I don't care how angry you are, I don't care anything. If you really love somebody they remain in there." Mansfield's oldest child, Jayne Marie Mansfield, said: "It was love at first sight with Mickey [Hargitay]. It really was, and he was just such a nice man, you could just see that she was so happy." Hargitay and Mansfield divorced in 1963, four years before her death. Her daughter Jayne said she believes her mom became depressed shortly before her divorce from Hargitay. "Her career wasn't going well, so she went back to these parts for dumb blondes," Mansfield explained. "I don't think it was easy for her. But I don't think it was easy for Mickey either. She was completely absorbed in negativity because she wasn't doing the kind of work she dreamed of doing, and I believe she became a victim of depression. You know you're never yourself when you're depressed." LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS Ellen said Mansfield started meeting other men and "the marriage fell apart. I think Mickey was hurt deeply by Jayne. I think she blew it when she divorced Mickey." "Mickey was the most positive influence in her life and even though he might have felt a lot of pain, he loved her. He always loved her even after they were divorced," she added. Mansfield came back to him many times after their divorce, and they were together again for a few months around the time she was pregnant with Mariska, Jayne said. Mansfield personified a 'dumb blonde' character Hargitay said her mother's baby whisper voice used to annoy her, and she would try not to listen to it when she heard her. "She didn't always talk like that," Hargitay said, adding that her mother had copied Marilyn Monroe in that way. Her former publicist Rusty Strait said she personified that character because it was what the studio wanted at the time. But at home, her daughter Jayne said she "didn't put on any of those airs," and wore her hair in a scarf and no makeup. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP "But she was also very eloquent. She spoke French, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, and she wanted us to be exposed to more [in life]," she added. Her son, Zoltan, said he "kind of looked the other way" when his mom did her "public voice. Because I knew she was really, really smart." Jayne said her mother told her she wanted to be a serious actress but "the parts didn't come in so she did what she had to do." She said Mansfield had "great admiration" for Marilyn Monroe, but eventually realized "that blonde persona is a box," adding that her mom told her around the time of Monroe's death in 1962 that "she wanted to reverse that image." "My Mom Jayne" premiered on HBO on Friday and is streaming on Max. Print Close URL
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Real Inspiration Behind Lauren Sanchez's Wedding Gown
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Amid the extreme fanfare—and corresponding outrage—surrounding her Italian nuptials to Jeff Bezos, Sanchez has finally revealed her much-anticipated wedding dress. She selected her friends the Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana of Dolce & Gabbana to craft the gown. And instead of pushing boundaries with a modern silhouette, Sanchez wanted timeless glamour. So, she turned to the past. More specifically, the bride reverted back to the '50s for her inspiration. The dress is based on the one Sophia Loren wore to marry Cary Grant in the 1958 film Houseboat. The bodice is quite similar: A white, boned corset with a sweetheart neckline blanketed in lace that extends to a high neck and long sleeves. 180 chiffon-covered buttons trace a line up the middle. The skirt, however, swaps a full '50s silhouette for that of a fluted mermaid. A sweeping tulle-and-lace veil tops it off. The whole thing took over 900 hours to make. It's a departure from the revealing silhouettes Sanchez often favors (she famously exposed a lace bra beneath a plunging white Alexander McQueen blazer to Donald Trump's presidential inauguration) but no less body conscious. She wore a similar silhouette to the amfAR gala in Cannes last month: a white Roberto Cavalli strapless mermaid gown trimmed in ostrich feathers. So far on the bridal circuit, Sanchez has attempted to skew more capital-F fashion. She's worn a one-shoulder vintage 2003 Alexander McQueen dress and Schiaparelli couture, lavishly embroidered with an extremely exaggerated, corseted waist. This morning, she sported a classic white Dior skirt suit with an Hermès silk scarf tied on her head in an homage to Audrey Hepburn. She is rumored to be changing into a sweetheart neck, corseted gown inspired by the 1946 Rita Hayworth film Gilda. Other publications have noted that Sanchez seems to be chasing the fashion crowd with choices like her couture gown from Schiaparelli, a brand that the industry has dubbed elite in its creativity. References have also become a popular red-carpet hack, as editors and watchers alike uncover sartorial easter eggs left by celebrities and their stylists. Sanchez wanted to evoke a moment rather than opting for something simple. But the key to an interesting historical reference is that modern interpretation. For Sanchez, it seems the past curries more favor than the present. When in Venice, it's of course appealing to channel golden-age film stars—La Dolce Vita, and all. Their ensembles exaggerate the wearer's femininity in a manner that parallels Sanchez's style of dress (minus a bit of fabric—it is 2025, after all.) But then, there's a reason the 1950s have become shorthand for regressive gender roles. The gowns in Houseboat and Gilda are beautiful, but both films feature female characters who are criticized for their promiscuity and failed domesticity. In an era where so many things feel like they've moving backwards, it's hard not to read something deeper into this kind of '50s cosplay coming from the newly-minted wife of a billionaire. Or perhaps she's just a huge fan of director Melville Shavelson? You Might Also Like 4 Investment-Worthy Skincare Finds From Sephora The 17 Best Retinol Creams Worth Adding to Your Skin Care Routine
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Reddit will play an important role in the AI age, says COO
Content publishers such as Reddit (RDDT) are facing challenges as AI advances, with concerns that AI search will drive traffic away from the original sites. Reddit COO Jennifer Wong joins Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi for an interview at Cannes Lions 2025 to discuss the company's investments in AI and its lawsuit against Anthropic. Reddit alleged the Amazon-backed (AMZN) startup scraped its users' personal data without their consent, then used the data to train its large language model Claude. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out Opening Bid here. Google is wreaking havoc on the publishing industry. Um I think of what they're doing with their AI snippets. It's really causing massive issues for media enterprises. What have the changes they have made, how is it, I guess, causing disruption at Reddit? I mean, search is under heavy construction right now, uh because there's this change that's happening with the introduction of LLMs and search generative results and Google has its own canyon to cross in bridging what's been the traditional UI to this new experience. Um, and everyone's feeling the volatility of that. Our corpus is obviously big and that's a source of traffic. But I think, you know, when I think about the long, if I just pull up and I think about the long term, I think that there is in the end, no AI or human or artificial intelligence without human intelligence. I think Reddit plays a really big role in that, both in broad-based search, whatever that looks like in the end, you know, maybe with summarization through LLMs, or the opportunity to have onsite search. I mean, Reddit, this is, you know, we are one of the few that has a really significant corpus that regenerates, you know, human opinion, real time that responds to everything happening in the world, that also creates an incredible opportunity for us to bring that experience, a unique experience onto Reddit. Now, uh, Reddit recently sued Anthropic for allegedly scraping your site. From the CEO perspective, how were you, how are you able to determine that they were allegedly doing that? Um, well, we know. I mean, we're able to see, uh, you know, what happens on our property. Um, but what I would say there is what's important to us is that, um, that we are able to protect our users privacy, their deletion rights. Like we have policies, um, that ensure that, you know, when users take down a post, like the post is taken down. And so it's really important, and as we said in our terms of service, that, you know, we have a conversation with folks who have access to our data because that's a commitment that we have in terms of our policies. Um, and it's also, you know, to know how Reddit data is used. And so that's what you see there just, you know, that's very important to us and we will, we will ensure that that's the case and that's very, very important to Reddit. Is the, is the best outcome that Anthropic would pay Reddit for your content or license it? I mean, I can't comment further on, on outcomes or, you know, what's happened. Reddit, the, you know, what's been filed publicly. Um but I will say that following our policies is incredibly important to us. As you look forward to, uh, on AI, how will AI show up throughout the platform? I know you're making a big push internationally, for example. Um, AI is an incredible tool for making our products better. Um, and it's, you see it throughout Reddit already today. Right? So our strategy is, you know, number one, improving that core community use case. Well, one of the things AI helps us do and helps moderators do is scale their moderation and help people post content more easily, help them follow and traverse the rules of communities, um, and help moderators moderate. That's incredible in terms of scale. In terms of growing internationally, as you know, Reddit is a lot of conversation and words, so AI allows us to machine translate global conversations into multiple languages and we're doing this today in French and German in fact and almost 12 different languages right now. And these are conversations that are about universal life experience, like parenting or pop culture, these things, um, uh, really apply and can be enjoyed globally where you take out the language friction. So that's a really exciting, you know, application. And then you see AI weaved into our advertising, you know, announcement yesterday just putting an LLM layer on top of the Reddit corpus creates insights for uh, businesses and brand marketers to understand, you know, where their opportunities are, what people think about their brands, where they can find communities to engage and grow their businesses. I think AI is unlocking just better and better product experiences. It'll make Reddit better and better. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Dakota Johnson, Adria Arjona and Kyle Marvin Star in Trailer for Michael Angelo Covino's ‘Splitsville'
Marriages crumble, crash and intertwine in the official trailer for Splitsville. Following a premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last month, Neon and Topic Studios released the trailer for director Michael Angelo Covino's and co-writer Kyle Marvin's second feature Monday. The open-marriage comedy stars Dakota Johnson, Adria Arjona, Corvino and Marvin, with Nicholas Braun, David Castañeda, O-T Fagbenle and Charlie Gillespie rounding out the cast. More from The Hollywood Reporter Nanni Moretti Teaming With Louis Garrel, Jasmine Trinca on New Film Celine Song on How 'Materialists' Subverts the Rom-Com With a "Really Frank Conversation" How Celine Song's 'Materialists' Approaches New York City Wealth The trailer unveils a series of nail-biting, raunchy and hilarious moments. The film's synopsis is as follows: 'After Ashley (Arjona) asks for a divorce, good-natured Carey (Marvin) runs to his friends, Julie (Johnson) and Paul (Covino), for support. He's shocked to discover that the secret to their happiness is an open marriage, that is until Carey crosses the line and throws all of their relationships into chaos.' Splitsville serves as a reunion for Corvino and Marvin, whose first feature, The Climb, premiered at Cannes in 2019. While both films highlight the aftermath of getting involved with the other's significant other, Splitsville shows the writing duo expanding into broader material. 'After we made The Climb, Kyle and I started working on a couple of different stories and scripts that were a bit bigger — different themes, different kinds of worlds,' Covino told THR ahead of the film's Cannes premiere. 'This project really came out of a desire to get back to something we could make in a more contained way. Something we didn't have to ask for a ton of permission to do.' Splitsville is slated to hit theaters Aug. 22. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Wes Anderson's Movies Ranked From Worst to Best 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Cannes Competition Drama ‘Two Prosecutors' Nabbed by Janus Films
Janus Films has picked up the North American rights to Sergei Loznitsa's Cannes competition drama Two Prosecutors. The Ukrainian director's Soviet-era thriller set during Stalin's Great Purge in 1937 earned the François Chalais Prize in Cannes. Two Prosecutors centers on a law school grad who tries as a young prosecutor takes on corruption in the Soviet system and winds up facing the consequences. More from The Hollywood Reporter Ezra Miller Signals "Tentative" Hollywood Return After Surviving Personal "Abyss" NATPE Honors Europe: Meet the TV Execs Managing the Streaming Transition - and War in Ukraine Dakota Johnson, Adria Arjona and Kyle Marvin Star in Trailer for Michael Angelo Covino's 'Splitsville' The drama is based on the novella by Soviet scientist and political prisoner Georgy Demidov and stars Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Alexander Filippenko, Anatoli Beliy, Andris Keišs and Vytautas Kaniušonis. 'Impeccably directed and impressively acted, this slow-burn story of political injustice is filled to the brim with atmosphere — specifically the stifling, claustrophobic atmosphere of the U.S.S.R. at the height of Stalin's Great Purge,' The Hollywood Reporter film critic Jordan Mintzer said of the historical drama in his Cannes festival review. Director Loznitsa in a statement said of the North American distribution deal: 'I am proud to entrust my latest film to Janus and excited to work with them for the first time. They have all my confidence to give the film the impactful North American launch it deserves.' 'With Two Prosecutors, Sergei has meticulously crafted a haunting and taut thriller rooted in the horrors of the past, yet chillingly resonant with the political realities of today. We're proud to release this vital film and to be back in business with Kevin, Said, and the entire team at SBS Productions,' Janus Films said in its own statement. The distributor earlier picked up other Cannes 2025 titles like the Special Jury Prize winner Resurrection from director Bi Gan; another historical drama, Magellan, helmed by Lav Diaz; and director Hlynur Palmason's The Love That Remains. Two Prosecutors is produced by Kevin Chneiweiss. Regina Bouchehri, Gunnar Dedio, Birgit Rasch, Loznitsa, Maria Choustova, Alise Gelze, Vlad Radulescu, Uljana Kim, Viola Fügen, Michael Weber and Cécile Tollu-Polonowski are co-producers. Recent Janus Films releases include Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Oscar winner Drive My Car, and this year Alain Guiraudie's Misericordia, David Cronenberg's thriller The Shrouds and Jia Zhangke's Caught By The Tides. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Wes Anderson's Movies Ranked From Worst to Best 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT
