Mariska Hargitay recalls learning dad Mickey wasn’t her biological father: 'Thought my life was over'

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Mariska Hargitay opened up about the deeply personal revelation that changed her life at 25.

'The Law & Order: SVU' star revealed the exact moment she discovered that the man who raised her, Mickey Hargitay, was not her biological father.

Mariska Hargitay recalls emotional moment she learned Nelson Sardelli is her real father

Hargitay shared how she discovered the truth while visiting Sabin Gray, a passionate fan and collector of Jayne Mansfield.

“It was so rough,” Hargitay said. “I had been invited to this guy named Sabin Gray’s house. He was head of the Mansfield fan club, and he was this lovely guy who was just obsessed with Jayne and loved her so much. He was a huge collector of memorabilia, movie posters — anything related to her," she told Alex Cooper on the 'Call Her Daddy' podcast.

Walking through Gray’s home, Hargitay said she felt overwhelmed by what she described as a “museum or shrine” to the mother she never knew.

Gray then asked if she wanted to see a photo of Nelson Sardelli.

“He says to me, ‘Do you want to see a picture of Nelson?’ And I just looked at him, and this jolt went through my body. I said, ‘Who's Nelson?’ and then I knew in one second,” she said, according to People.

Sardelli, a 90-year-old former Las Vegas entertainer, is revealed to be her biological father in the documentary 'My Mom, Jayne.' This revelation is also one of the emotional focal points of the new documentary, which premieres on June 27.

“On a cellular level, it was just like DNA talking to DNA,” Hargitay recalled of the moment she saw Sardelli’s picture.

Mariska Hargitay recalls emotional fallout after learning Mickey Hargitay wasn’t her biological father

Hargitay said Gray appeared stunned and panicked after realizing she hadn’t known the truth.

“I saw the blood drain out of [Gray's] face, and he sort of panicked and turned white. Then he said, 'Oh, it's probably not true, it's probably not true.' And that's when I knew. I think he couldn't believe that I didn't know,” Hargitay said.

She drove away shaken. “I just really thought my life was over. I remember leaving and driving to my brother's house, and I thought I was going to crash my car because I was so not present,” she recalled.

Afterward, she confronted Hargitay. “I went up to my dad’s house, and I was hysterically crying and in a state. And he was — how about this metaphor — my dad was physically building me a house."

“So I drive up to the house that he is building me and confront him,” she continued. “He was like, ‘What are you talking about? Are you crazy? That’s so not true,’” she said during the podcast interview.

Mariska Hargitay calls herself 'mini-Mickey' despite DNA truth

Though she never spoke of the matter with Mickey again, Hargitay explained its lasting impact.

“The irony is that I’m more like my dad than anyone in our whole family. I am mini-Mickey, so it was just a very extraordinarily painful moment,” she said.

“I say that this is the moment I became an adult, and it’s so visceral for me because I was in so much pain. I was so overwhelmed,” she added.

Despite the truth, Hargitay chose to protect her father’s feelings. “It doesn’t matter what I feel, I love him and we’re done here, we’re done here,” she said. “I pretended that I believed him, and we never spoke of it again.”

Jayne Mansfield (1932-1967), formerly Vera Jane Palmer. She had a short career as a kind of living parody of Marilyn Monroe in films such as 'The Girl Can't Help It' (1956), and 'Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?' (1957) (Keystone/Getty Images)

Hargitay was raised by Mickey after her mother, Mansfield, died in a car crash in 1967. She was just 3 at the time and grew up with her siblings, Mickey Jr and Zoltan.