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“I consider myself half-Texan,” said Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Mariska Hargitay, whose mother Jayne Mansfield grew up in Dallas. Hargitay headlined the Genesis Women’s Shelter luncheon on\u00a0Friday, May 8, 2026.<\/p>\n
Juan Figueroa\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so excited to come here,\u201d said Mariska Hargitay, sounding like she meant it, in an onstage conversation at the 33rd Genesis Women\u2019s Shelter<\/a> luncheon on May 8, 2026. \u201cI see all the prosecutors and SVU detectives and all the people in law enforcement,\u201d she said, casting her eyes over the 1,500 or so attendees of the sold-out event inside Dallas\u2019 Hilton Anatole ballroom. \u201cI play a cop on TV, but you all are my heroes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Genesis Women\u2019s Shelter luncheon has a reputation for high-profile keynote speakers. Nicole Kidman<\/a>, George W. Bush<\/a> and Kristin Chenoweth<\/a> have all appeared at the annual fundraiser for the nonprofit, founded in 1985 as a safe place for women fleeing violent homes. Hargitay was a natural fit, given the more than a quarter-century she\u2019s played Law & Order: Special Victims Unit\u2019s Olivia Benson, a detective turned captain who\u2019s something of an avenging angel for women\u2019s justice and one of America\u2019s most beloved female TV protagonists. \u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Like Genesis, the 62-year-old Hargitay is comfortable addressing topics people might prefer to keep hidden: domestic abuse, rape, sexual assault. In 2004, she founded Joyful Heart Foundation to help survivors, and 16 years ago, she began sounding the alarm about hundreds of thousands of untested rape kits languishing in warehouses across the country (also the subject of her 2017 HBO documentary I Am Evidence). That activism has led to reform across all 50 states. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cGuess who was the first state who had all the six pillars of reform?\u201d she asked the audience, referring to the End the Backlog legislation her organization championed. \u201cTexassss!\u201d she answered, lightly shimmying her shoulders in a creamy silk top whose elegant drape only the truly glamorous can pull off. \u00a0<\/p>\n (From left) Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Mariska Hargitay with Jan Langbein, CEO of Genesis Women’s Shelter, at a fundraiser luncheon for the Dallas nonprofit at the Hilton\u00a0Anatole in Dallas, Friday, May 8, 2026.<\/p>\n Juan Figueroa\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n \u201cMy mom was from Texas,\u201d Hargitay continued, seated across from her conversation partner, Genesis CEO Jan Langbein, \u201cand I consider myself half-Texan.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Make Dallas News a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Hargitay\u2019s mother, of course, is ’50s blonde bombshell\u00a0Jayne Mansfield<\/a>. Born Vera Jayne Palmer, she played in the orchestra through Highland Park High School, married Paul Mansfield in her senior year (it was a different time) and studied violin at Southern Methodist University before setting off for Hollywood, where she became one of the most photographed women in the world. Mansfield died in a 1967 car crash that also took the lives of her then-boyfriend and driver. Mariska, 3 at the time, was in the back seat. She was found pinned under the car seat, and though a zigzag scar on her forehead dates back to that tragedy, she was mostly unharmed. The emotional impact was another story.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t remember the accident, but I had quite a bit of PTSD from it,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s when I learned about trauma and how it gets stuck in the body.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n Hargitay\u2019s ability to hold complicated stories began in childhood. Everyone knew her mother\u00a0\u2014 but she did not. Her extraordinary 2025 HBO documentary My Mom Jayne illustrates how her mother\u2019s absence shaped her life, though the narrative tension comes from the film\u2019s reveal about her dad. Raised by Mickey Hargitay, aka Mr. Universe and her mom\u2019s devoted second husband,\u00a0Mariska learned in her 20s that Hargitay was not her biological father. \u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Audience members listen to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Mariska Hargitay speak at the Genesis Women’s Shelter luncheon at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Friday, May 8, 2026.<\/p>\n Juan Figueroa\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n \u201cI kept it a secret, because I wanted to honor him,\u201d she said, referring to the late Hargitay, the man she calls \u201cmy North Star.\u201d She eventually realized she could honor him\u00a0\u2014 and herself\u00a0\u2014 in other ways, freeing herself from the silence in the hope it might free others, too. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe all have secrets,\u201d she said. \u201cWe all carry a story.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our Terms Of Use<\/a> and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Genesis Women\u2019s Shelter aimed to raise $1.3 million at the luncheon for its services, which reach 3,000 women a year. A special Jane Doe award, given for courage in helping women fleeing domestic abuse, went to Terry Flowers of St. Philip\u2019s School in South Dallas. An Ignite award for people who spark change was given to\u00a0Hargitay\u2019s Joyful Heart Foundation. The luncheon\u2019s co-chairs were Angela Crates and Stephanie Bond, who came to the podium to share the story of surviving an attempted murder-suicide by her husband of 22 years, who shot her three times before turning the gun on himself. \u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cDomestic violence suffers greatly from a \u2018not in my backyard\u2019 syndrome,\u201d Bond told the audience. \u201cWe all think it happens to people over there.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n Genesis Women\u2019s Shelter is a reminder that it does happen, and if it happens to you, there\u2019s a place to go. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“I consider myself half-Texan,” said Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Mariska Hargitay, whose mother Jayne Mansfield…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[98510,102,104,103,91555,87998,89019,95703],"class_list":["post-285743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-arts-entertainment-tv","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-tp-celebrities","tag-tp-dallas","tag-tp-high-profile","tag-tp-tv-personalities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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