Mariska Hargitay has had a successful and rewarding journey in the world of film and television. The talented actress, known for her role as Olivia Benson on Law & Order, has truly become a star. Yet, she has also faced a tragic event in her past.
Hargitay has faced the devastating accident for a long time. But what’s truly important is that the talented actress, who has won a Golden Globe, has also managed to find love and create a warm and loving family.
Mariska and Peter Herman have enjoyed a happy marriage for seventeen years. Yet, he caused her to shed tears on their initial date. This sheds light on the challenges Mariska Hargitay faced and conquered in her life.
Mariska and Peter Herman have enjoyed a happy marriage for seventeen years. Yet, he caused her to shed tears on their initial date. This sheds light on the challenges Mariska Hargitay faced and conquered in her life.
Mariska Hargitay – tragic passing of mother Jayne Mansfield
Jayne Mansfield’s career was already on the decline by then. She was released by 20th Century Fox in 1962, two years before Mariska was born, and later appeared in various TV shows and game shows.
During the 1960s, Mansfield made the bold decision to venture beyond Hollywood and starred in several movies from Germany, Italy, and Britain. Additionally, she embraced the stage and began captivating audiences with her live performances in nightclubs while touring both in the US and the UK.
Don Arden, the famous music promoter and Sharon Osbourne’s father, arranged a tour in 1967. She had a show scheduled in Batley the following week.
Jayne Mansfield’s final tour was in the UK. Sadly, she passed away in a car accident at the age of 34 while driving from a nightclub in Mississippi to New Orleans, when her vehicle collided with a tractor-trailer.
Sam Brody, who was Mansfield’s former boyfriend, and the driver tragically lost their lives in the accident. The beloved Hollywood actress was laid to rest in Fairview Cemetery in Pennsylvania beside her father.
Three children were peacefully sleeping in the backseat, and thankfully, they all made it out of the car unharmed. Mariska Hargitay moved to live with her father Mickey Hargitay following the incident, and even though she was very young at the time, it’s a memory she’ll always carry with her.
Losing my mother when I was young left a mark on my soul,” she shares. “However, I believe it shaped me into the individual I am now. I grasp the ups and downs of life. I had to experience what I went through to reach where I am today.”
Mariska Hargitay continued her education at Marymount High School, where she enthusiastically participated in various theater groups.
Constantly compared to her mother
She made the decision to enroll at UCLA in California to pursue her passion for theater. Soon after, in 1984, she took her first steps into the world of acting with her debut in Ghoulies. Throughout the 1980s, Hargitay dedicated herself to acting in various TV shows, aiming to establish herself on a bigger stage. However, unlike her mother, who was known for such actions, she chose not to change her name or dye her hair.
Mariska Hargitay found herself frequently being compared to her mother, even though she had her own successful career now.
Mariska has faced numerous suggestions to embrace her mother’s alluring appearance, change her name, and alter her appearance. However, she once refused to participate in a revealing scene for the movie Jocks (1986). Being the daughter of a Hollywood icon hasn’t always been easy for her, and at times, it has even felt like a weight on her shoulders.
Mariska Hargitay expressed her dislike for the constant mentions of her mom in the past, as she desired to be recognized for her own accomplishments. She also shared that losing her mother at a tender age left a deep emotional mark on her soul.
Mariska Hargitay, however, holds a completely contrasting viewpoint regarding the incident and firmly asserts that there was no accident whatsoever. Nonetheless, she will forever cherish the memory of her mother, as she has always been conscious of the tragic event.
Hargitay shared with James Lipton during an interview that she believes there are no accidents in life. She also mentioned her faith in God’s plan, admitting that she may not comprehend it fully but chooses to trust it. Additionally, she expressed the importance of making peace with the present circumstances.
Mariska Hargitay – ‘Law & Order’
Mariska Hargitay also mentioned that being open to accepting the situation and learning from it is crucial for personal growth. She emphasized the importance of constantly seeking opportunities to learn and grow.
In 2018, Hargitay delved deeper into the difficult loss. She shared that she openly discussed it once more, aiming to steer clear of pain, grief, and emotional turmoil.
She mentioned, “Instead of resisting it, I’ve learned to fully embrace it because eventually, you have to face the consequences. I won’t deny that it’s challenging, and it has definitely been a difficult journey for me. I’ve encountered numerous hardships. However, once you overcome those obstacles, the rewards can be incredibly fulfilling.”
Mariska decided to pursue a career in acting just like her mother. It’s uncanny how much she resembles Janye!
Mariska Hargitay finally hit the big time after 15 years in the acting industry. Her breakthrough role came in 1999 when she took on the character of Olivia Benson in the popular NBC series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. To this day, the show continues to air, with Mariska gracing the screen in over 500 episodes.
She remembered on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that after reading the script, she felt it in her heart that she had to take on the role. The chills she got from reading it made her certain that she had to do it.
Before landing the role, Hargitay’s agent cautioned her that it could be “too dark.” Despite the warning, Mariska wasn’t worried about that at all.
Starred in over 500 episodes
She received a callback after the audition, but it turned out that another female was also present. Hargitay plays a detective on the show, and she was already acting in the part before getting it.
Mariska thought back to the time when she confronted Dick Wolf, the originator, and corrected him.
“I walked in, and I go, ‘Listen, you’re confused. Here’s the deal. I’m pretty sure this is me,’” she recalled. “‘This is my part; I’m serious. We’re past this, let’s not even waste your time.’”
The firm stance taken by Mariska Hargitay worked out perfectly. She has played Olivia Benson on Law & Order: SVU since since she was cast in the role.
But as they were shooting the pilot episode, her efforts with the creator came back to pretty much haunting her.
“I found out the other girl was for another role, and she was in the pilot, too!” Mariska Hargitay explained, adding that she was upfront about possibly destroying the other actress’s career. “I did, she knew.”‘
The hit primetime show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has helped Mariska carve a successful career, winning both a Golden Globe as Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. In addition, she’s been nominated for eight more awards.
Mariska Hargitay – family, husband & children
In 2004, Mariska married actor and producer Peter Hermann. The couple met two years earlier, as Peter worked on Law & Order as both an actor and a producer on season three. Now, they have been happily married for 17 years.
For Mariska Hargitay, the day she met Peter was a memorable one. Speaking on The Drew Barrymore Show, she revealed that she was very nervous when seeing him the first time.
“He was very handsome, and it was distracting,” Hargitay recalled. “Then he would come back the other day, and all the producers would look at me and give me eyes. I’d never been like that to anyone ever. It was funny because I was single, I was 35, 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.’”
Peter made his future wife cry on their first date as she asked her to go to church with him.
“And I was moving, and I said, ‘Peter, I would love to, but not today. I am moving today.’ He was like, ‘Oh come on; it’s an hour. It’s an hour.’ It was so funny, I just couldn’t resist, so I went to church,” she recalled on The Drew Barrymore Show.
“And it was that day I remember we went to church… and I am crying, and he thinks I am so moved by the sermon, and I am crying because I am like, ‘I know I am going to marry him. I found my husband. I love him.”
In retrospect, it’s possible to conclude that Mariska Hargitay experienced it. They developed their friendship gradually, just like other people do, so things may have gone in a different direction.
After many years of dating, Mariska suddenly began to have misgivings. She showed up for work one day broken, according to her co-star Christopher Melani. Meloni claims that after a protracted and thoughtful discussion, Mariska and Hermann decided it would be best for them to part ways. It was an extremely difficult moment, and both Mariska and Hermann were crying as they conversed.
”And she’s sobbing, and the whole time, the [thought] bubble in my head was just: ‘You’ll be married within five months.’ That’s all I was thinking. I knew. I knew,” Christopher Melani recalled.
And as we all know, the duo worked through their differences and decided to spend their lives together. During Hargitay’s 40th birthday, Hermann looked at his partner realized what he really wanted:
“I think I got a look at what she is like when she is planted, when she is in the soil she’s designed to be planted in. And I wanted to be that soil. Something like that!”
When Mariska Hargitay, the queen of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and her husband Peter Hermann were ready to have children, they knew they wanted a large family.
Mariska Hargitay and Peter Hermann welcomed their first child, August, in June 2006. But when Mariska gave birth to their first child at 42, neither knew if she would be able to have another successful pregnancy.
So the couple were open to adoption, something Hargitay had thought of since she was a child. During the painful adoption process, Mariska Hargitay relied on her faith in God.
“I was really letting the chips fall as they might, because I do think so much is up to God. I always said, ‘I don’t know how this is going to end up. I don’t know if I’m going to get pregnant and have twins. I don’t know…,’” she remarked.
“‘If somebody’s going to leave a baby on my doorstep.’ But I really did think that down the line, Peter and I would adopt a child. That was always part of the plan.”
Little did they know that their third child would almost fall right into their lap.
In 2011, they adopted Amaya Josephine after attending her birth.
The birth mother, who was Black, told the couple she knew she was making the right choice.
“She said, ‘I know this is right. You are this baby’s mother.’”
Hargitay said her child’s race was a “nonissue” to them, and “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.”
“I basically pulled Amaya out,” Mariska mentioned a year after her birth. “Peter and I held her, and then the birth mother and I hugged for a long time. That was profound. That was one of the most meaningful moments I’ve ever had in my life.”
A few months after adopting Amaya, Hargitay and Hermann adopted son, Andrew Nicholas.
August, who was four-and-half years old at the time was in love with the newest addition to their family.
“He is over the moon,” she said. “He calls her his baby because he says the whole thing was his idea. He always talks about how he’s going to protect her. He’s going to be a great big brother.”
However, like most kids, he still wasn’t satisfied. He now wanted a little brother.
As she was very young when her mother passed away, becoming a mom herself has brought her closer to the guardian she lost so early in life.
“Being a wife and mother is my life, and that gives me the most joy,” she said. “I understand [my mother] in a new way that gives me peace. Now I understand the love she had in her, and it makes me feel closer to her.”
When their stars were positioned next to one other on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013, Mariska Hargitay and her mother Jayne Mansfield were reconnected in a sense. Who knows, though? Possibly in the future, her kids will join her and her mother on the renowned walkway.
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