Mariska Hargitay is reflecting on a life-altering experience that brought her face-to-face with her past, and helped shape her future.
In a recent interview with The Shift published on July 25, the Law & Order: SVU star opened up about a serious motorcycle accident she had at age 34, which was the same age her mother, Jayne Mansfield, tragically passed away in a car accident.
Describing the accident as “deeply painful on every level,” Hargitay revealed how the event unexpectedly shifted her perspective.
“Something opened up,” she said, explaining how that moment became a turning point in her life.
“It was like I’d crossed a threshold. My trajectory was my own, my story was my own, without a predetermined ending.”
Within a year of the crash, she landed the role of Olivia Benson, a character that would go on to define her career.
“I can’t help but make a connection between that moment of liberation after the accident from what I feared was my fate and then stepping into this role that has become such a profound part of my life,” she said.
“It’s like I stepped out of a narrative that wasn’t mine and into my own story.”
Jayne Mansfield died in a fatal car accident in 1967, also at 34.
She was traveling with her children, including a then 3-year-old Mariska, when their car collided with a tractor trailer.
The crash took the lives of Mansfield, her partner Sam Brody, and their driver. Hargitay and her siblings survived, but she says she has no memory of that tragic day.
“I don’t remember the accident,” she shared in an earlier interview with Vanity Fair. “I don’t even remember being told that my mother had died.”
Now 61, Hargitay’s reflections reveal how moments of deep loss and trauma can sometimes lead to growth, healing, and a renewed sense of purpose.
Her story is not just about survival—it’s about reclaiming identity and finding strength in the face of fate.
