Kristen Stewart isn't the only actor making her feature film directorial debut at the Cannes Film Festival. Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay debuted My Mom Jayne, a documentary about her mother, actor Jayne Mansfield, who died in a 1967 car crash that 3-year-old Hargitay survived, at Cannes on Saturday, noting the film reveals a long-held secret about her parentage. In childhood, Hargitay was told her biological father was actor and bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay, but that turned out to be a lie, per People. Hargitay revealed her true biological father is the former Las Vegas entertainer Nelson Sardelli.
Mansfield filed for divorce from Mickey in 1963 and briefly dated Sardelli, an Italian singer and comedian, before reconciling with her husband a few months before Hargitay was born in January 1964, per the Independent. Hargitay said she only learned of Sardelli's existence when she was 25, per People. She said she confronted Mickey, who insisted he was her biological father, and the subject was dropped. Five years later, Hargitay learned the truth from one of her mom's superfans, per Deadline. She then went to see Sardelli perform and introduced herself.
"I was like, 'I don't want anything, I don't need anything from you … I have a dad,'" she tells Vanity Fair. "I wanted to be loyal to Mickey." But Hargitay then came to see herself as "living a lie my entire life." Of the family gained through Sardelli, "I made them secrets!" she says. "It's so heartbreaking to me." The documentary is about acknowledging the truth, but it's also a "kind of a love letter to [Mickey], because there's no one that I was closer to on this planet," Hargitay says. "I grew up where I was supposed to," she adds. "I'm Mickey Hargitay's daughter—that is not a lie." The documentary premieres June 27 on HBO following a one-week theatrical release. (More Mariska Hargitay stories.)
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