Mariskay Hargitay radiates the September cover of Good Housekeeping. The 46-year-old Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress opens up about motherhood, her longtime role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and how having her own child has helped heal the loss of her mother.
Mariska was born into celebrity, the daughter of two pop-culture icons — '50s sex symbol Jayne Mansfield and bodybuilder-actor Miklós "Mickey" Hargitay. The couple divorced around the time of Mariska's birth and just 3 1/2-years later, Mansfield died in a tragic car crash.
When Mariska welcomed her son August in June, 2006, she opened up to a new way of thinking about the loss of her mother, who had five kids.
It's not a source of pain or angst anymore," she says. "I understand her in a new way that gives me peace. Being a mom has been healing. Now I understand the love she had in her, and it makes me feel closer to her."
