Actress Mariska Hargitay has starred on NBC's Law & Order: SVU since 1999.
She created such an iconic TV detective character that Taylor Swift even named one of her cats
after her.
"This is Olivia Benson meeting Olivia Benson… and things are going well so far"
These days, Hargitay has a happy home life with her husband, actor Peter Hermann, and
their three children, but it didn't come easily.
Here's a look back at what the actress has survived.
Tragedy strikes
Mariska Hargitay was born in Santa Monica, California, on January 23, 1964.
Her mother was curvaceous bombshell actress Jayne Mansfield, who was typecast in "dumb
girl" roles like in The Girl Can't Help It, despite reportedly having a genius IQ.
"Can you tell me where to find 341?"
"341?
Second brownstone, ma'am."
"Thanks sonny."
"(whistles)"
Mariska's father was Mickey Hargitay, a bodybuilder, actor, and former Mr. Universe.
The couple met in 1956 when Mickey was in Mae West's nightclub act as eye candy, and
Jayne was in the audience.
Supposedly, according to The New York Times, the actress told a server when placing her
supper order, "I'll have a steak and the man on the left."
Despite that fun-filled beginning, it was a rocky marriage, and Mariska's parents split
up shortly after her birth.
Then in 1967, tragedy struck.
Mansfield was killed in a car accident when the Buick she was riding in hit the back of
a tractor-trailer spraying mosquito fog in the middle of the night.
"A bulletin has just been handed to me.
Hollywood star, the buxom and beautiful Jayne Mansfield is dead."
The three adults in the front of the car all died in the crash.
Three-year-old Hargitay and her two older brothers Mickey and Zoltan were in the back
seat sleeping, all survived.
"We got pulled out and we're on the way and I was thinking about my sister Mariska" "they
go Mariska?"
" As soon as they heard that they went back and go 'Gee, there's another person in the
car."
"So they went back and got her.
She was stuck under the seat."
She told Redbook in 2009, "Losing my mother at such an early age is the scar of my soul.
But I feel like it ultimately made me into the person I am today.
I understand the journey of life.
I had to go through what I did to be here."
Jewel thief
When children lose a parent, especially if the child was young at the time, they may
want to at least hold on to some of their mom's or dad's treasured possessions.
For a long time, Hargitay didn't get that chance.
Mansfield's home was burglarized after her death, most of her personal items were stolen
and sold to collectors.
Hargitay told James Lipton on Inside the Actor's Studio in 2014, that, many years later, collectors
approached her and asked her if she wanted to buy any of her mother's items.
She did, and now wears her mother's bracelet, which had a charm with her name on it.
"With a little ballerina, holding a pearl.
It's so beautiful."
Urban legend
No one wants to relive the death of a loved one, but Hargitay was forced to do just that,
while dealing with a gruesome rumor about the way her mother died.
Mansfield was remembered for decades after her death, but in a macabre way.
Her tragic death became a joke, as rumors spread that she was decapitated.
But the real story is that it was her wig — not her head — by the side of the road.
But even today, the urban legend persists.
Mind games
According to Good Housekeeping, Hargitay struggled with "anxiety" and "low self-esteem," reporting
that, "In her...late teens and early 20s, Hargitay acutely felt the pain of not really
having known her world-famous mother."
She would even skip fun events like parties.
She told the magazine, "I thought, What's the point?
They won't even notice that I'm not there."
But later, she admitted, "I [realized] that you have to show up for your life."
Another brush with death
Hargitay's dad married flight attendant Ellen Siano, when the actress was three years old.
The couple stayed together until Mickey's death in 2006.
Hargitay said in her E!
True Hollywood Story, that Siano was a great stepmother, and helped raise her after her
mother's passing.
Hargitay told Good Housekeeping in 2012, "I called [Ellen] Mom.
We were blessed that she really embraced us and loved us so quickly.
And I was very fortunate to have a maternal figure in my life after such a horrific accident."
But the family had a big scare in 1973, when a plane her stepmother was flying in hit terrible
turbulence.
According to her E!
True Hollywood Story, "One passenger was killed, and four other people were hospitalized, including
Ellen."
"She hit the floor and the ceiling something like 56 times."
"You know I remember it very well because she was horrifically injured."
"It wasn't good.
And it was really really hard."
"She got really beaten up."
The incident was eerily familiar for Hargitay and her siblings, making it that much more
difficult for the family to cope.
"Those are tough emotions for kids to deal with - almost have that happen twice, that's
really scary for us."
According to that interview, in response to the tragedy, "Mariska threw herself into school
and became an overachiever."
Breakin' the law
According to E!'s True Hollywood Story, Hargitay was a sorority girl at UCLA, studying acting,
going to auditions, and working as a waitress, when she landed a role in Ronnie Milsap's
music video "She Loves My Car."
"She loves my car."
"Wish she loved me the way she loves my car."
Hargitay said, "I was so excited even though I got arrested that night."
Wait, what?
Jennifer Barker, her college roommate, explained.
Apparently Hargitay "got a lot of parking tickets...and didn't pay them.
They put her in the back of the car and took her to jail."
Mariska was wearing her sexy music video wardrobe when she got tossed in the clink.
Her roommate said, "She was in there with all the ladies of the night and...she was
fitting right in."
Less money, more problems
Hargitay didn't land Law & Order: SVU until she was 35.
But because she didn't have a steady paycheck up until then, she told Good Housekeeping
that "she racked up six-figure debts."
She said, "I had a house and car I didn't want to lose, and I had a lot of credit card
debt."
At one point, her boyfriend was paying her expenses, and she said, "When we broke up...I
owed him 60 grand.
I'm a payer-backer.
So as soon as I could, I paid him off."
Today, she's much more careful with her money, saying, "I have learned to hang on to it.
I have a nest egg, and I don't buy above my means."
Her father's death
Not only did Hargitay land her starring role in Law & Order: SVU in her mid-30s, but she
also married later as well.
Hargitay met future husband, actor Peter Hermann, on the set of her show in 2001.
They fell in love, got married in 2004 when she was 40, and had their first child together,
August, in June 2006 when she was 42.
Hargitay was also nominated for an Emmy for the third time for her dramatic role on the
show, in 2006.
She should've been on top of the world.
But just when she was about to give birth to her child at Cedars-Sinai, her father,
Mickey, was admitted to the hospital at the very same time, having just been diagnosed
with cancer.
He was able to get wheeled to the maternity ward to see his new grandson, but the cancer
was very aggressive, and he died by that September.
Just before he died, Mariska won her first Emmy, giving a tearful acceptance speech,
and dedicating it to her father.
"I want to thank my father - because he is the reason I'm standing here today.
I'm so proud to be your daughter, dad.
I can't wait to celebrate this with you."
Injured on the job
Hargitay suffered a big health scare that began on set in 2008.
She told Redbook she was "doing a stunt chasing a bad guy…[and] landed wrong."
It turned out that a "microscopic bleed began in her lung tissue."
Three months later, she wasn't feeling well, and was worried she was having a heart attack.
She said, "I had a procedure hoping to stave off more serious surgery, but it didn't work,
and I ended up in surgery about two weeks later."
Shortly after, she says, "It happened again.
I was one out of 1,000, statistically."
These days, she and her lungs are doing just fine.
She said, "I have so many blessings, and I've learned from all of my experiences and my
losses.
I think you learn to feel grateful when you are exposed at such a young age to the fact
that bad things can happen."
Baby problems
After having her first child in 2006, Hargitay and her husband wanted to expand their family.
She told Good Housekeeping in 2012, "August wanted siblings, and Peter and I both envisioned
this big family...I was really letting the chips fall as they might, because I do think
so much is up to God.
I really did think that down the line, Peter and I would adopt a child.
That was always part of the plan."
"I love talking about adoption because I think it's the greatest thing on the planet."
The couple eventually were able to adopt two children a few months apart in 2011, welcoming
daughter Amaya and son Andrew into their happy home.
But before that, there were major setbacks.
The parents had tried multiple times to adopt a child, without success.
The worst was in 2010, when the birth mother gave her child to Hargitay and Hermann, and
then "changed her mind" two days later.
Hargitay remembered, "It was nothing short of devastating…[but] this is what I've come
to understand about life: it was probably the greatest, happiest ending.
I mean, it was so painful for us, but it was deeply joyful and deeply right for [the mother]."
The bright side
"My life is exactly the way I wanted it, it was my dreams, you know."
Hargitay has a very life-affirming personality now, thanks in no small part to her father.
She says, "The message I got from my father was that life is hard, but you just don't
quit.
I am grateful that I didn't let fear get the best of me.
It only holds you back from possibilities and greatness.
You've got to kick fear to the side, because the payoff is huge."
She also said, "I don't focus on what I can't control If I can't control it, let's move
on.
I think that we have all been swallowed up in 'shoulda-woulda-coulda.'
You figure it out and you walk tall and go through it.
Some days it's chicken, and some days it's feathers."
And, if you needed any more proof that Hargitay's still got it?
She brought the Justice to Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood"…
"You say sorry just for show.
If you live like that you live with ghosts.
"It's just so awesome and it makes me feel super badass."
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