Mariska Hargitay Was Left Behind at the Crash That Killed Her Mom

Mariska Hargitay was just 3 years old when her mother was killed in a horrific car crash. Mariska and two of her siblings, Mickey Jr. and Zoltan, who were sleeping in the backseat of the car, survived the crash. Almost 60 years later, Mariska is now ready to explore the ramifications of the life-changing accident. Hargitay makes her directorial debut with the documentary, My Mom Jayne, which explores her mother’s tragic death and the events that followed. The film premiered at Tribeca on June 13.

In the film, Mariska looks back on the night of the crash—and even learns a few new details. After all, she remembers nothing. “I don’t remember the accident,” she said to Vanity Fair. “I don’t even remember being told that my mother had died.”

While speaking to her brothers, Mickey and Zoltan, who were 8 and 6 respectively at the time of the crash, Mariska learned that she was accidentally left behind at the scene of the crash before the rescue team returned to pull her from the wreckage.

Mickey recalls waking up after the crash in a new car with a blonde woman who had rescued him from the wreck. At first, he thought it was his mother. Meanwhile, Zoltan woke up and realized that their younger sister wasn’t in the car. He asked where she was, and the rescue team realized that they must have accidentally left her at the scene.

They hurried back and found Mariska had been lodged underneath the passenger seat. She suffered an injury that left a scar on one side of her head.

As Ellen Hargitay, Mariska’s step-mother, says in the film, “Thank God Zolie woke up,” Ellen says.

Mariska, Mickey Jr., and Zoltan were raised by her father, Mickey Hargitay. In her 20s, Mariska learned that her biological father was, in fact, Italian singer Nelson Sardelli, with whom Jayne Mansfield had had an affair.

Throughout her press tour for My Mom Jayne, Mariska has been constantly supported by her husband, actor Peter Hermann, and their three children, August, Amaya, and Andrew. Speaking to InStyle at one Tribeca event, the actress teared up as she said, “Well my husband is my biggest supporter, and it’s been amazing.”