{"id":8775,"date":"2025-07-19T19:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T19:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/8775\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T19:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T19:27:10","slug":"mariska-hargitay-shares-how-she-made-peace-with-biological-dad-nelson-sardelli-after-paternity-bombshell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/8775\/","title":{"rendered":"Mariska Hargitay shares how she made peace with biological dad Nelson\u00a0Sardelli after paternity bombshell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mariska Hargitay<\/a> revealed she recently had a sweet conversation with her biological father Nelson Sardelli<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In her acclaimed documentary My Mom Jayne<\/a>, the 61-year-old actress revealed the decades-old family secret that the man who raised her, Mickey Hargitay, was not her real dad.<\/p>\n

During a documentary screening at HamptonsFilm\u2019s SummerDocs on Thursday, she hosted a Q&A session in which she detailed a special Father’s Day exchange she had with Sardelli, 90.<\/p>\n

She described the experience as ‘magical,’ telling the audience, ‘He apologized and he said, “Thank you for forgiving me.” And I said, “Thank you for making the choice that you made.”‘<\/p>\n

Mariska spoke candidly about coming to terms with her family\u2019s secret about who her biological father is.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to an account from Just Jared<\/a>, she reflected, ‘I spent my life feeling unworthy, not wanted, not claimed, not good enough, abandoned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Mariska <\/p>\n

Mariska Hargitay revealed she recently had a sweet conversation with her biological father Nelson Sardelli; pictured June 13<\/p>\n

\"Mariska's <\/p>\n

Mariska’s mom, 60s bombshell Jayne Mansfield, had a months-long relationship with the singer before reconciling with estranged husband Mickey Hargitay; pictured in 1963\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘And then I realized, “Oh, no, sweetie, you were chosen six ways from Sunday.”‘<\/p>\n

In the riveting documentary, Sardelli explained that he believed leaving Mariska to be raised by Hungarian bodybuilder Mickey was in her best interest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As an adult, Mariska has made peace with her family dynamic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her siblings include sisters Tina Hargitay, 76,\u00a0Jayne Marie Mansfield, 74,\u00a0Mickey Hargitay Jr., 66, Zoltan Hargitay, 64, and\u00a0Tony Cimber, 59.<\/p>\n

After his final split from Mansfield, Hargitay married\u00a0Ellen Siano in 1967.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Now I feel like I have two mothers, I have two fathers,’ Mariska said at the screening.<\/p>\n

‘I think the reason I made this movie now is because I was ready to make it now,’ the Law & Order: SVU star told Stephen Colbert <\/a>of her decision to produce the documentary 58 years after her mom’s tragic death.<\/p>\n

Appearing on the now-cancelled late night show in June, she said, ‘In a way I feel like I’ve been preparing my entire life to make it.’<\/p>\n

\"In \"In <\/p>\n

In June Hargitay paid tribute to her late mother, who died in a car accident in 1967, by wearing a similar look worn by the movie star at the Cannes Film Festival in 1958.\u00a0In her acclaimed documentary My Mom Jayne, the 61-year-old actress revealed the decades-old family secret that the man who raised her, Mickey Hargitay, was not her real dad<\/p>\n

\"Mansfield <\/p>\n

Mansfield and Sardelli seen sharing a kiss at San Francisco International Airport in May 1963<\/p>\n

\"Jayne <\/p>\n

Jayne pictured holding a six-week-old Mariska in 1964<\/p>\n

She went on to say that she discovered boxes of fan letters pertaining to her mom during the covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

‘I had the time to sit with each letter and people had sent me things that were truly a gift,’ Hargitay said of finding the trove of personal stories and playbills.<\/p>\n

‘So, I said, “I think I wanna dig in here,”‘ she added about feeling inspired to create the film.<\/p>\n

Mariska had previously spoken about her mom during her own appearance at the Cannes Film Festival this year, telling Deadline<\/a>: ‘The photos of her, in Cannes in particular, were always so meaningful to me because of how free and happy and in love she was with my father.’<\/p>\n

She said the striking black and white images ‘seared this emotional place’ in her mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mariska Hargitay revealed she recently had a sweet conversation with her biological father Nelson Sardelli. In her acclaimed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,2093,75,9113,9112],"class_list":["post-8775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-dailymail","tag-entertainment","tag-mariska-hargitay","tag-tvshowbiz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}