EXCLUSIVE: The Darkest Secrets Jayne Mansfield Took to Grave — And Why Her Star Daughter Was 'Embarrassed' By Blonde Bombshell's Constant Flesh-Flashing
Jayne Mansfield's darkest secrets emerged, including why her daughter felt embarrassed by her constant flesh-flashing.
Aug. 12 2025, Published 11:30 a.m. ET
Mariska Hargitay said: "I just wanted my mom to be like the other moms. Why are you always in a bathing suit? Why so much breast? So I felt myself being embarrassed by her."
The Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star, now 61, makes the shocking statements about her tragic, blonde bombshell mom, Jayne Mansfield in her directing debut with My Mom Jayne, an HBO documentary charting the turbulent life and death of her silver screen icon mother, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The Car Crash That Killed Jayne
Mariska Hargitay shared that she felt embarrassed by her mother.
The 34-year-old Hollywood bombshell died on 29 June 1967 when the car she was traveling in slammed into a truck outside New Orleans.
Three of her five children – Mickey, Zoltan and Mariska – were asleep in the back. All were injured but survived.
The crash quickly became mired in myth.
One persistent – and false – rumor claimed Mansfield had been decapitated. Her undertaker, Jim Roberts, later explained that her wig was thrown from the car and mistaken for her head.
"It was nonsense," he said.
The Documentary About Jayne
Mansfield died in a car crash in 1967.
Hargitay, who won a Golden Globe in 2005 and an Emmy in 2006 for her TV role as Olivia Benson, admitted she has no memory of the accident or being told her mother had died.
The film seeks to piece together a woman she barely knew through interviews with siblings, surviving friends, and Mansfield's 101-year-old former press secretary, Raymond Strait.
Born Vera Jayne Palmer in 1933, Mansfield rose quickly after a calculated makeover – bleaching her hair, embracing revealing outfits, and rivaling Marilyn Monroe in the 1950s race for maximum exposure.
She posed for Playboy, starred in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? in 1957, and was briefly America's most in-demand pin-up.
But her hunger for publicity soon overshadowed attempts to be taken seriously.
Mansfield posed for 'Playboy' and starred in 'Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?'
"She was funny and irreverent and fearless and real," Hargitay said, quoting the thoughts of her father, Hungarian-born bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay, who married Mansfield in 1958.
By 1964, the marriage and her career were faltering. Film offers dwindled; Mansfield resorted to projects like the nude comedy Promises! Promises! (1963.)
She showcased her intelligence – reportedly backed up by an IQ of 163 – on talk shows, even playing Vivaldi on The Ed Sullivan Show, but was met with dismissive jokes from male hosts.
Her personal life was equally turbulent. Multiple affairs, including rumored links to high-profile political figures, eroded her marriage.
Later relationships, including with divorce lawyer Sam Brody, who died alongside her, were marred by volatility.
In 1966, Mansfield posed with Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan, for a staged ritual, further fueling her notoriety.
LaVey allegedly cursed Brody, predicting his death in a car crash within a year.
Jayne's Bombshell Secret Exposed
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Hargitay learned at 25 that her biological father was Nelson Sardelli.
The documentary also explores a revelation Hargitay received at 25: that her biological father was not Mickey, but Italian singer Nelson Sardelli, with whom Mansfield had a brief relationship in 1963.
Sardelli said he kept quiet to avoid disrupting her childhood. "It was all about loyalty," Hargitay said.
Mansfield's image as a breathy "dumb blonde" became a gilded cage she could never escape, especially as she yearned for recognition by the establishment through an Academy Award.
Hargitay's film reframes her not as a tabloid caricature, but as a complex woman chasing legitimacy in an industry that refused to let her evolve.
