'Law & Order: SVU' star Mariska Hargitay discovers she was left behind at scene of mother's tragic accident

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"Law & Order: SVU" star Mariska Hargitay uncovered a shocking detail about the car crash that killed her mother, Jayne Mansfield. 

During the filming of the 61-year-old actress's new documentary "My Mom Jayne," Hargitay had a conversation with her brother Zoltan Hargitay in which she learned that she had been accidentally left behind at the scene of the 1967 accident that claimed the life of her mother as well Mansfield's boyfriend Sam Brody and driver Ronald B. Harrison. 

At the time of the crash, Mansfield, Brody and Harrison were in the front seat of the vehicle while Harigitay, Zoltan and their older brother Mickey Hargitay Jr. were asleep in the backseat. In the film, Zoltan recalled how Mansfield had moved up to the front seat during an argument with Brody, according to People magazine.

"I often think about why she didn't just stay in the backseat with us?" Zoltan said in the documentary.

"But I remember her comforting me, telling me I was going to be fine. 20 minutes later, half an hour, I heard her scream so loud, and that was it," he continued as he became emotional. 

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Ahead of the accident, the group was driving from Biloxi, Mississippi to New Orleans, Louisiana, where Mansfield was set to make a television appearance. While on the highway, their car slammed into the back of an 18-wheeler that had slowed down barely south of the Mississippi border, according to the New York Times. The vehicle was shrouded in a dense fog from a nearby anti-mosquito spray truck.

All of the adults in the front seat were killed instantly, but the children in the backseat survived with injuries.

Mickey, who was eight at the time, recalled waking up in the back seat of a car following the crash and thinking that he saw Mansfield sitting in the front seat. 

"It felt like my skin didn't move, because it was bloody all over," he remembered in the film, via People. 

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However, after the woman in the front seat turned around, Mickey realized that she was not Mansfield, and he was "in a car with a blonde-haired woman who had helped rescue the children."

When Zoltan, then 6-years-old, woke up in the car, he noticed that Hargitay, who was 3-years-old at the time, was not with them. He asked the adults where his little sister was, leading them to realize that a third child had been in the car at the time of the crash. The adults then circled back to the scene of the accident, where Hargitay had been pulled to safety. 

In the film, the children's stepmother Ellen Hargitay explained that the adults initially missed Hargitay because she had been lodged under the passenger seat with a head injury. 

"Thank God Zolie woke up," Ellen said.

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"My Mom Jayne" premiered during the Tribeca Festival on June 13 at New York City's Carnegie Hall. The film first debuted on May 17 at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. During a May interview with Vanity Fair, Hargitay explained that the documentary, which marks the actress's directorial debut, helped her address the loss of her mother.

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"I don’t remember the accident," she told the outlet. "I don’t even remember being told that my mom had died. I looked at photos, and I don’t really remember anything until I was 5."

While speaking with Vanity Fair, Hargitay revealed that her biological father is former Las Vegas entertainer Nelson Sardelli. She and her brothers were raised by late actor and bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay. 

In 1963, Mansfield filed for divorce from Mickey, who died in 2006 at age 80. She then embarked on a high-profile romance with Sardelli. The actress went on to reconcile with Mickey several months before Hargitay’s birth in 1964.

Hargitay told the outlet that she had long suspected that Mickey, whom she idolized, was not her biological father. While Hargitay was in her 20s, her suspicions were confirmed when she saw a photo of Sardelli.

At age 30, Hargitay first met her biological father when she went to see Sardelli perform in Atlantic City.  Hargitay eventually forged a bond with Sardelli, 90, and his daughters, Giovanna and Pietra Sardelli.

According to People magazine, Sardelli, Giovanna, Pietra and Jayne Marie attended the New York City premiere of "My Mom Jayne" alongside Hargitay. 

Mansfield, born Vera Jayne Palmer, was an aspiring actress who spoke several languages and played violin and piano. A casting director suggested she bleach her hair, wear tighter dresses and adopt a Marilyn Monroe-inspired voice. The "dumb blonde" persona stuck, and Mansfield skyrocketed to fame in Hollywood. But like Monroe, Mansfield struggled to be taken seriously as an actress.

"When I would hear that fake voice, it used to just flip me out," Hargitay recalled to Vanity Fair. "'Why is she talking like that? That’s not real.' [But] my dad would always say, ‘She wasn’t like that at all. She was like you. She was funny and irreverent and fearless and real.'"

"My Mom Jayne" will premiere June 27 on HBO and HBO Max.

Fox News Digital's Stephanie Nolasco contributed to this report. 

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