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Mariska Hargitay is opening up about the "grief" she experienced as a child following the traumatic death of her mother, Jayne Mansfield.
On Tuesday (November 12), the Law & Order: SVU star shared rare comments on her mother's passing while she attended the Hope for Depression Research Foundation's 18th Annual HOPE Luncheon Seminar, Us Weekly reports. Mansfield, an actress and Playboy Playmate, tragically died in a car crash in 1967 when she was 34 years old, while Hargitay and two of her siblings were also in the vehicle, per Page Six.
"I lost my mother when I was 3 years old, and I grew up in a house of people dealing with the tragedy in their own way," she said, adding, "Because there was so much grief, there wasn't room to prioritize anyone. We didn't have the tools that we have now to metabolize and understand trauma."
The Lake Placid actress, who received the 2024 Hope Award for Depression Advocacy, said she didn't find the tools she needed to address her experiences, including "[suffering] sexual trauma in my 30s," until "much later in life." She ultimately went on to use her trauma to enact a positive change for others, founding the Joyful Heart Foundation in 2004 as "part of my response to my own experience."
"I built a whole foundation that responded to trauma and survivors the way that I wanted to be responded to," she said, praising the "extraordinary therapists" who helped her learn how to heal.