Longtime Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay is letting fans see a whole new side of her in her new documentary, My Mom Jayne. The movie, which also marks Hargitay’s feature film directorial debut, follows the actress as she remembers her late mother, Hollywood bombshell Jayne Mansfield, and uncovers secrets of her family along the way.

Among the revelations in the movie, as revealed by early reviewers at the2025 Cannes Film Festival, is that Hargitay’s dad, Mickey Hargitay, who passed away in 2006, isn’t her biological father.

In a chat with Entertainment Tonight at the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of the doc, Hargitay talked about how her family reacted to the big reveal.

“I showed my family the film and when I did, we all held each other for an hour [and] 45 [minutes], and we didn’t let go,” she remembered. “And they were so happy.”

As a reminder, Hargitay has five siblings: brothers Mickey Jr., Zoltán, and Tony, and sister Jayne Marie.

Hargitay then revealed what her sister said after their embrace. “My sister said, ‘I feel like we are four people, with one beating heart,'” she remembered.

“And if no one ever saw the movie, it felt like my job was done,” Hargitay reflected, getting teary-eyed. “And after that night, that’s all I cared about, it’s what they thought. So it was gorgeous.”

Overall, it seems Hargitay is thrilled for her new project, which hits theatres later this month on June 20.

“I’m so happy, I feel like this whole process has been such a gift,” Hargitay said. “When you’re doing a documentary, you’re going so much into the unknown, and the unknown was very beautiful, and what happened among my family was beautiful.”

“I feel free and I feel integrated and I feel like I have a beautiful movie that I can’t wait to share,” she said.

As a reminder, Mansfield tragically passed away on June 29, 1967, in Biloxi, Mississippi, in a car crash. At the time, Hargitay was only three years old. Now, she’s uncovering her family’s passed, and connecting with her mom, perhaps more than ever before.

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