Mariska Hargitay is getting open and honest with youngest brother Tony Cimber about his father Matt Cimber’s relationship with their mother, the late Jayne Mansfield.
“My father, Matt, never really talked about her,” Tony, 59, said of Jayne in Mariska’s new documentary, My Mom Jayne. “I guess it’s kind of unfortunate because I never asked. And I don’t know why.”
“But your dad, and our mother, there are things that I’ve heard that I’m always fearful to bring up with you,” Mariska, 61, told her brother. “Things that are really ugly.”
Tony responded, “Yes. And I’m sure. But I don’t know those ugly things. I don’t know that I want to know. Because I don’t want to carry it. Because I don’t know what good it does.”
Mariska Hargitay Seeks Truth About Parents in ‘My Mom Jayne’ Trailer
Jayne’s former secretary, Raymond “Rusty” Strait, added, “I think Matt was the worst thing that ever happened to [Jayne]. The only thing good that came out of that was Tony.”
Matt, 89, was married to Jayne from 1964 to 1966.
My Mom Jayne saw Mariska sit down with various members of her family, including her siblings, her stepmom, Ellen Siano Hargitay, and her biological father, Nelson Sardelli, to learn more about Jayne, who died in a car accident when Mariska was only 3 years old in 1967. Jayne was 34 years old at the time of her death.
“This movie is a labor of love and longing. It’s a search for the mother I never knew, an integration of a part of myself I’d never owned, and a reclaiming of my mother’s story and my own truth,” Mariska said in a statement in April. “I’ve always believed there is strength in vulnerability, and the process of making this film has confirmed that belief like never before.”
Jayne, a famous actress and sex symbol of the 1950s, had five children in total. She gave birth to Jayne Marie Mansfield with first husband Paul Mansfield in 1950. Jayne later welcomed sons Miklós “Mickey” Hargitay Jr. and Zoltán Hargitay and daughter Mariska in 1958, 1960 and 1964, respectively, with second husband Miklós “Mickey” Hargitay. (In May, Mariska publicly revealed that her biological father was actually Sardelli, 90, whom Jayne was in a relationship with in 1963. Mariska learned the truth about her biological father’s identity in her 20s.)
Jayne and third husband Matt welcomed Tony in 1965.
Mariska revealed on Late Night With Seth Meyers on Thursday, June 26, that she wanted to get her siblings’ permission to make the documentary before proceeding with the project.
“It was very sweet, because I flew out to L.A. to go meet with them and say, ‘I want to do this. You know, I want your blessing. I don’t want to do it without your blessing,’” she explained. “And of course, they were all hesitant and reticent and were like, ‘I don’t know what this means.’”
Mariska Hargitay’s Heartwarming Quotes About Late Mom Jayne Mansfield
Mariska continued, “None of them are in … you know, they don’t make movies. They’re not actors, they’re not in show business at all. But they ended it with, ‘We trust you,’ which was pretty an extraordinary thing to hear from your siblings.”
Mariska added that after the documentary was finished, she gathered with her siblings again for a “private, intimate” screening.
“It was one of the highlights of my life, really,” she said. “There were four seats across, and so with one brother, then my sister, me and my other brother, and within 10 minutes in, the four of us were sitting in two seats. We held hands through the entire film, and it was just really beautiful. And we all cried, and my sister said, which was so moving to me, ‘I feel like we’re four people with one beating heart.’”
My Mom Jayne premieres on HBO and Max Friday, June 27, at 8 p.m. ET.
