The daughter of pin-up actress Jayne Mansfield thought she was Hungarian on her father’s side. She even bears the ethnic name Mariska Hargitay, and is a long-time star of TV’s Law & Order: SVU. But at age 25 she was shocked to learn that she was a Sardelli. Her biological father is Italo-Brazilian singer Nelson Sardelli, 90 and retired. Mother Jayne never told Mariska of her brief liaison with Nelson. Now 61, Hargitay reflects back on this revelation in a recent HBO documentary, “Is this why she’d always felt so comfortable on family trips to Rome?” she wonders.
A clear family resemblance.
She used to wonder why she didn’t bear any resemblance to her father or brothers Miklós, Zoltán and Antonio. “(I’m) going, ‘My brothers aren’t my brothers, I’m not Hungarian, I’m not related to all my family that I grew up with in Hungary,'” It started to make sense to her why during her childhood “everyone asked me if I was Italian.” When she was shown a picture of Sardelli, “On a cellular level, it was just like DNA talking to DNA,” she said. “I knew it was true, and I just really thought my life was over.” She had been living a lie: was she Hungarian or Italian, a wanted child or illegitimate mistake?
Her presumed father Mickey Hargitay died in 2006, a few year after the revelation. It was probably then that Mariska forged a bond with Sardelli and his daughters Giovanna and Pietra, her half-sisters. Coincidentally, Mariska speaks Italian as well as French, Hungarian, and Spanish.
There’s a YouTube video of Mariska’s visit to ABC-TV’s The View in which she reveals her emotional journey and how she is now reconciled to her mother’s decisions. Watching her appearance, I couldn’t help but notice how she gestured, hands and arms moving with each word, perhaps more evidence of her Italian-ness. I was waiting for hostess Joy Behar (née Occhiuto) to welcome Mariska to the Italic fold, but she didn’t.
new popularity
Another shock of sorts happened to singer Connie Francis these past months. Her 1962 recording of “Pretty Little Baby” has gone viral on TikTok. Originally a B-side recording about two teen lovers, it is now a mother-child lullaby. It has been used in nearly 15 million clips this year, according to a press release. It’s been streamed more than 20 million times on Spotify, and is now at No. 67 on the platform’s Global Top 100 chart.
Connie, now 87 and living in Florida, was pleasantly surprised by her newfound popularity. She had no idea what ‘gone viral’ meant and had actually forgotten recording the song. For those of us who followed her career back in the 1950s and 60s, the hits that made her famous were “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool,” “Where the Boys Are,” “V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N,” “Who’s Sorry Now?” “Lipstick on Your Collar,” and so many others.
Connie didn’t forget her roots. Born Concetta Franconero, she pleased our immigrant relatives with classic Italian songs, especially “Mamma.” Those were the days when our pop singers paid homage to their roots. And their Anglicized names couldn’t hide their italianitá.
Here’s hoping that Marietta Sardelli (née Mariska Hargitay) will also celebrate her Italian roots. -JLM
I guess I am part of that DNA club too, since my new brother from a relationship of my father, prior to his marriage surfaced after a 23 and me contact! Too many details to explain s but my newly found brother would not need a DNA test if I ever saw him on the streets….looked like a twin of my father, It was very healing for my brother to connect to his newly found Italian side, since his mom was Danish and Legal father Finnish….yet genetically Danish and very Calabrese…..
As a point of reference…..the courts recognize 3 types of paternity, legal, biological and “de facto”, any one of the three can be vital to a life of a child…..but it was an education for me to experience how much we get from the biological traits…since my brother and I were not at all connected and still how many common traits emerged…..and very Italian, happy to have the added family…..