Mariska Hargitay has had a successful and long career in film and television. The 58-year-old actress plays Olivia Benson on Law & Order and has become a true celebrity. However, a terrible disaster occurred in her past.
Hargitay has been dealing with the devastation of the accident for many years. What matters most, however, is that the Golden Globe-winning actress has also found love and built a loving family.
Mariska and Peter Herman have been happily married for 17 years. On their first date, however, he made her cry. This tells you everything you need to know about Mariska Hargitay’s life and how she overcame adversity.
Mariska Hargitay, the daughter of Mickey Hargitay and Jayne Mansfield, was born on January 23, 1964, in Santa Monica, California. It was supposed to be a lovely upbringing with two loving parents. Mariska’s mother, Jayne, died tragically in an accident when Mariska was three years old.
Jayne Mansfield’s mother, Mariska Hargitay, died tragically.
Jayne Mansfield’s career was already in decline at the time. She was fired by 20th Century Fox in 1962, two years before Mariska was born, and went on to appear in several television and game shows.
Mansfield chose to venture outside Hollywood in the 1960s, appearing in films from Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom. She also began performing live on stage in nightclubs while touring in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Don Arden, a well-known music promoter and Sharon Osbourne’s father, organized a tour in 1967. One week, she was performing in Batley.
Jayne Mansfield’s final tour was in the United Kingdom. She died in a car accident while driving from a nightclub appearance in Mississippi to New Orleans. Her vehicle collided with a tractor-trailer. Jayne was only 34 years old.
The collision killed Sam Brody, Mansfield’s ex-boyfriend at the time, and their driver. The beloved Hollywood actress was laid beside her father in Pennsylvania’s Fairview Cemetery.
She had three sleeping children in the backseat, but they all made it safely. Mariska Hargitay moved to be with her father, Mickey Hargitay, after that, and she will never forget it, despite being a small child.
“Losing my mother at such a young age left a scar on my soul,” she says. “However, I believe it ultimately shaped me into the person I am today. I understand the path of life. I had to go through what I went through to get here.”
Mariska Hargitay continued her education at Marymount High School, where she was involved in theater groups.
She is frequently compared to her mother.
She decided to study theater at UCLA in California, and shortly after that, in 1984, she made her acting debut in Ghoulies. Following that, Hargitay spent the 1980s acting in a variety of TV shows in an attempt to advance her career on a larger scale. But, unlike her mother, who was notorious for changing her name and hair color, she did not.
Despite having a job, Mariska Hargitay was constantly compared to her late mother.
People advised her to adopt her mother’s seductive appearance, change her name, and alter her appearance. Mariska once refused to appear naked in the film Jocks (1986). Being the daughter of a Hollywood legend has not been easy. It has even become a burden for her at times.
“I used to despise being reminded of my mother because I wanted to be known for myself,” Mariska Hargitay explained. “The scar of losing my mother at such a young age is on my soul.”
She has always been aware of the tragic accident and will never forget her mother. On the other hand, Mariska Hargitay has a completely different take on the incident, claiming that there was no accident at all.
“There are no accidents,” Hargitay said in an interview with James Lipton. “I also believe God has a plan. I trust it even though I don’t understand it. And I learned to be content with what is.”
‘Law & Order’ star Mariska Hargitay
“It’s also useful for acting. Accept what is and try to figure out what isn’t. I believe my philosophy is what I can learn from this situation and how I grow. Because growing is the most important thing to me,” Hargitay added.
Hargitay elaborated on the difficult loss in 2018. She explained that she has become more open about it to avoid pain, loss, and feeling things.
“But I’ve learned to lean into it because you have to pay the piper sooner or later,” she said. “I’m not saying it’s easy because it hasn’t been for me. There’s been a lot of gloom. However, on the other hand, things can be so bright.”
Mariska followed in her mother’s footsteps into the acting business. And she certainly resembles Janye!
Mariska Hargitay received her significant breakthrough role after 15 years of acting. She made her NBC debut as Olivia Benson in the police drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 1999. Mariska has appeared in over 500 episodes of the show, which is still on the air.
“I read the script, and I knew in my gut that I had to do this role,” she told Stephen Colbert on The Late Show. “I just got chills reading it and knew I had to do it.”
However, before she got the part, Hargitay’s agent warned her that it might be “too dark.” Mariska, on the other hand, was unconcerned.
I appeared in over 500 episodes.
After the audition, she received a callback, but it turned out that another female was also present. Hargitay plays a detective on the show, and she was already performing in the role before being cast.
Mariska reflected on the time she confronted and corrected the originator, Dick Wolf.
“‘Listen, you’re confused,’ I said as I walked in. Here’s how it works. “I’m fairly certain this is me,” she recalled. “‘This is my part; I mean it. We’ve moved on, so don’t waste your time.’”
Mariska Hargitay’s firm stance worked out perfectly. She has played Olivia Benson on Law & Order: SVU since the show’s inception.
But, as they were filming the pilot episode, her collaboration with the creator returned to haunt her.
“I discovered the other girl was for another role and was also in the pilot!” Mariska Hargitay elaborated, adding that she was upfront about the possibility of ruining the other actress’s career. “She knew I did it.” ‘
Mariska’s successful career has been aided by the hit primetime show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which has earned her a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama and an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She’s also been nominated for eight more awards.
Mariska Hargitay’s family includes her husband and children.
Mariska married actor and producer Peter Hermann in 2004. On season three of Law & Order, Peter worked as both an actor and a producer, and the couple met. They’ve been married for 17 years and are still going strong.
Mariska Hargitay will never forget the day she met Peter. She revealed on The Drew Barrymore Show that she was terrified the first time she saw him.
“He was very attractive, which was distracting,” Hargitay recalled. “Then he’d come back the next day, and all the producers would look at me and give me a look. I’d never treated anyone like that before. It was funny because I was single and 35 at the time, and my friends were like, ‘Mariska, you need to get out more; nobody’s going to show up on your show and ask you to marry them.’”
On their first date, Peter made his future wife cry when he asked her to accompany him to church.
“And I was moving, and I said, ‘Peter, I would love to, but not today. ‘I’m relocating today.’ ‘Oh, come on; it’s an hour,’ he said. It’s been an hour.’ “I couldn’t stop laughing, so I went to church,” she explained on The Drew Barrymore Show.
“And I remember we went to church that day… and I’m crying, and he thinks the sermon moves me, and I’m crying because I know I’m going to marry him. I discovered my husband. “I adore him.”
In retrospect, it’s possible that Mariska Hargitay went through it. They formed their friendship gradually, as most people do, so things could have turned out differently.
Mariska began to have reservations after many years of dating. According to her co-star Christopher Melani, she arrived at work one day broken. After a lengthy and thoughtful conversation, Meloni claims that Mariska and Hermann decided it was best for them to part ways. It was difficult, and Mariska and Hermann were both crying as they talked.
“And she’s sobbing, and the [thought] bubble in my head the whole time was just: ‘You’ll be married in five months.’” That was all I could think about. I knew. “I had a feeling,” Christopher Melani recalled.
And, as we all know, the couple overcame their differences and decided to spend the rest of their lives together. Hermann looked at his partner during Hargitay’s 40th birthday and realized what he truly desired:
“I think I got a glimpse of what she’s like when she’s planted and in the soil, she’s supposed to be planted in. I aspired to be that soil. That sort of thing!”
Mariska Hargitay, the queen of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and her husband, Peter Hermann, knew they wanted a large family when they were ready to have children.
In June 2006, Mariska Hargitay and Peter Hermann welcomed their first child, August. When Mariska gave birth to their first child at the age of 42, neither of them knew if she’d be able to have another successful pregnancy.
So the couple was open to adoption, which Hargitay had considered since she was a child. Mariska Hargitay relied on her faith in God during the difficult adoption process.
“I was letting the chips fall as they might because I think so much is up to God. ‘I don’t know how this is going to end,’ I always said. I’m not sure if I’ll get pregnant and have twins. “I’m not sure…,” she admitted.
“‘If someone is going to abandon a baby on my doorstep.’ But I had hoped that Peter and I would adopt a child. That was always the intention.”
They had no idea their third child would almost fall into their lap.
They adopted Amaya Josephine after attending her birth in 2011.
The birth mother, a Black woman, told the couple that she knew she was making the right decision.
“‘I know this is right,’ she said. ‘You are the mother of this child.’”
“We were excited to have a multiracial family because that’s what the world is, and we want our family to reflect a realistic microcosm of the world,” Hargitay said of her child’s race.
“I dragged Amaya out,” Mariska said a year after she was born. “Peter and I held her, and then the birth mother and I hugged for a long time. That was significant. That was one of the most meaningful experiences I’ve ever had.”
Hargitay and Hermann adopted son Andrew Nicholas a few months after adopting Amaya.
August, who was four and a half years old at the time, was smitten with the newest member of their family.
“He’s overjoyed,” she said. “He refers to her as his baby because he claims the entire thing was his idea. He’s always talking about how he’ll protect her. He’ll make an excellent big brother.”
But, like most kids, he wasn’t satisfied. He now desired a younger sibling.
Because she was very young when her mother died, becoming a mother has brought her closer to the guardian she lost so young.
“Being a wife and mother is my life, and it brings me the most joy,” she explained. “I understand [my mother] in a new way that brings me peace. Now I see the love she had in her, and it brings me closer to her.”
Mariska Hargitay and her mother, Jayne Mansfield, were reconnected in some ways when their stars were placed next to each other on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013. However, who knows? Her children may one day join her and her mother on the famous walkway.
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