All About Jayne Mansfield’s 5 Children (Who Were All Featured in Mariska’s Documentary My Mom Jayne!)

Jayne Mansfield’s legacy continues through her children.

Before her death in 1967, the blonde bombshell who rose to fame in the 1950s as a Hollywood actress and sex symbol, welcomed five children: Jayne Marie Mansfield, Miklós “Mickey” Hargitay, Jr., Zoltán Hargitay, Mariska Hargitay and Antonio “Tony” Cimber.

The Golden Globe winner became a mom in 1950 when she welcomed Jayne Marie Mansfield with her then-husband, publicist Paul Mansfield, whom she split from in 1954. Four years later, she married Miklós “Mickey” Hargitay, with whom she welcomed two sons: Miklós “Mickey” Hargitay, Jr., born in 1958, followed by Zoltán Hargitay in 1960. Mansfield and Mickey temporarily split, but briefly reconciled when the actress found out she was pregnant again. Daughter Mariska Hargitay was born in 1964, and they divorced that year.

Mansfield married for a third time, to Italian movie director Matt Cimber, in 1964 and they welcomed their son Antonio “Tony” Cimber a year later. The pair were in the middle of divorce proceedings in 1967 when Mansfield died at only 34 years old, in a car accident that permanently changed highway safety standards.

In May 2025, Mariska released a documentary, My Mom Jayne, that highlighted her mother’s life — and also revealed her discovery that her biological father was a former Las Vegas entertainer named Nelson Sardelli. While the documentary shed new light on her relationship with her mother, it wasn’t the first time Mariska opened up about Mansfield.

“My mother was this amazing, beautiful, glamor­ous sex symbol — but people didn’t know that she played the violin and had a 160 IQ and had five kids and loved dogs,” Mariska told PEOPLE in March 2018. “She was just so ahead of her time. She was an inspiration, she had this appetite for life, and I think I share that with her.”

Here is everything to know about Jayne Mansfield’s five children: Jayne Marie Mansfield, Miklós “Mickey” Hargitay, Jr., Zoltán Hargitay, Mariska Hargitay and Antonio “Tony” Cimber.

They grew up in a “Pink Palace”

Pink was Mansfield’s signature color — she turned heads with her pink wedding gown when she married Mickey Sr. — and she wanted it all around her.

After their 1958 wedding, she and Mickey Sr. moved into a home on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles that they remodeled themselves and called the “pink palace,” according to Architectural Digest.

The all-pink aesthetic extended to everything from the wall surrounding the compound to the sparkling pink paint they used on the home’s exterior. The maximalist property even had a heart-shaped pool that Mickey Sr. tiled with “I love you, Jaynie” at the bottom.

Zoltán was involved in a serious accident at a zoo

On Nov. 23, 1966, Mansfield took Zoltán to Jungleland U.S.A., a private zoo in Sherman Oaks, Calif.

According to the Associated Press, the actor was posing for photos when a lion attacked Zoltán from behind, biting his neck and head, causing severe enough injuries for the boy to need brain surgery.

The then-6-year-old made a full recovery and Jungleland U.S.A. closed shortly after.

Three of Mansfield’s kids were in the car accident that killed her

Early in the morning on June 29, 1967, Mansfield was traveling from a nightclub show in Biloxi, Miss. to New Orleans, where she was scheduled to make a television appearance that afternoon, according to The New York Times. 

Ronald Harrison, a driver for the nightclub, was behind the wheel; Mansfield and her attorney, Samuel Brody, were also in the front seat. Mickey Jr., Zoltán and Mariska were all asleep in the back seat.

The car collided with the back of a trailer truck, killing the adults instantly. The kids were treated for minor injuries but were relatively unharmed.

According to Mansfield’s obituary in the Times, Harrison couldn’t see the truck because it was obscured by a thick cloud of mosquito spray.

In the wake of her death, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration called for mandatory underride bars, called “Mansfield bars” to be installed on the back of trailer trucks to prevent similar accidents.

Mariska is an accomplished actress

Mariska made her first television appearance in 1966, on an episode of The Merv Griffin Show, when she was just 2 years old — but it took many more years before she would land her breakout role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Mariska has now been on the show for over 25 years.

“I could have quit a million times, but my dad drilled into me that our family doesn’t quit,” she told Parade in 2019. “So if you don’t get it, it means you’re not ready and you have to get up and try again.”

The actress has since starred in Chicago P.D. and Law & Order: Organized Crime and received a Golden Globe just like her mother.

Mickey Jr. owns a plant store

Mickey Jr. opened Mickey Hargitay’s Plants in 1980.

“Among all the stars in Hollywood California, at Mickey’s we are all reaching for the Earth!” the plant nursery’s website reads. “Founded in 1980 we have come a long way; from collecting cactus, succulents and handmade macrame; to now an eclectic garden oasis in the heart of Los Angeles.”

Mickey Jr. spoke to the Los Angeles Times in 2016 about not following in his mom’s acting footsteps.

“[My family] made decisions to reach for the stars and I’ve wanted to keep my feet on the ground,” he explained. “I’ve wanted to do something that seems more grounded and is more real.”

For Mickey Jr.’s birthday in December 2023, Mariska posted a photo of the duo on Instagram, and wrote, “I love this guy so much. Best big bother. Soulful. Protective. Nurturing … To watch somebody nurture plants is a thing of beauty.”

Mariska credits Mickey Sr. with teaching her to “listen and learn”

After Mansfield’s death, Mariska and her siblings lived with Mickey Sr. and his wife Ellen.

“I called her Mom,” Mariska told Good Housekeeping in 2012. “We were blessed that she really embraced us and loved us so quickly. And I was very fortunate to have a maternal figure in my life after such a horrific accident.”

Mickey Sr. died in 2006, but Mariska has spoken extensively about her upbringing and the valuable lessons she learned from her father.

“My dad taught me to listen and to learn,” she told PEOPLE in 2018. “As a young kid, I had my antennas out for who had wisdom and why, and what was I supposed to learn from them, and why were they there? The way I’ve been able to make sense of the cards I was dealt was to follow those signs.”

Jayne Marie appeared in Playboy

Mansfield appeared in Playboy several times, including being Playmate of the Month in February 1955. Eight years later, the magazine famously published nude photos of her, which was unheard of at the time, and Hugh Hefner was arrested on obscenity charges.

In July 1976, Jayne Marie posed for the magazine, making her and Mansfield the first mother and daughter to have appeared in Playboy.

Mariska collects memorabilia of her mother

In 1985, when Mariska was a student at UCLA, she gave PEOPLE a tour of her apartment, and of her collection of Mansfield memorabilia, including pictures, old movie stills and a toothbrush with her mother’s image on it.

But Mariska said she wasn’t interested in books about the actor. 

“Why should I read those? I lived with an encyclopedia—my dad,” she said. “And my mom [Ellen] calls me up to tell me when one of her movies is on TV. My mother was a young knockout but she was also brilliant. She just gave the public what they wanted.”

Zoltán works behind the scenes in the film industry

Unlike his famous mother and sister, Zoltán prefers to be behind the scenes.

Taking after his father, who was a carpenter and built much of the family’s “pink palace,” Zoltán has worked on sets for films and TV shows, going all the way back to the 1990s. In 2021, he was a set carpenter for The Morning Show.

Mariska and Zoltán have a close bond. In August 2021, the actress showered praise on her brother for his birthday.

“Happy Birthday to my kind, loving and open and huge hearted brother,” she wrote on Instagram.

Tony and Jayne Marie live out of the public eye

Both Tony and Jayne Marie have a handful of acting credits to their names, but have both chosen to live quieter lives. Tony is a real estate agent in Las Vegas, according to his LinkedIn.

In 2008, Mariska gave Ask Stacy an update about Jayne Marie, saying she was living in L.A. and working as a money manager.

Mariska and Mansfield both have stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

In November 2013, Mariska got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, directly next to the star her mother received in 1960. At the unveiling ceremony, Mickey Jr., Zoltán and Jayne Marie all came to support her.

“It’s so incredible because my brother Mickey and my sister Jayne Marie were actually here, right here, when my mother got her star, so I can’t imagine what they’re feeling,” she said at the event. “Probably enough with the stars already.”

Mariska added, “I love you family, all of you.”

Mariska revealed in May 2025 that Mickey Sr. is not her biological father

In May 2025, Mariska premiered her documentary My Mom Jayne, which also included the reveal of a shocking family secret: her biological father is not Mickey Sr., the man who raised her, but rather a former Las Vegas entertainer named Nelson Sardelli.

As she explained in the documentary, Mariska learned of Sardelli when she was 25 years old. During an interview with Vanity Fair that month, Mariska shared that she went to see Sardelli perform when she was 30 years old, and he had an emotional reaction when she introduced herself.

“I’ve been waiting 30 years for this moment,” Mariska recalled him saying. In response, Mariska said she went “full Olivia Benson on him,” referring to her Law & Order: SVU character.

“I was like, ‘I don’t want anything, I don’t need anything from you. … I have a dad, ‘ ” she recalled telling him, adding that there was “something about loyalty.”

“I wanted to be loyal to Mickey,” she said, but added that she has bonded with Sardelli and his daughters in the years since. In fact, Sardelli and her half-sisters are all featured in the documentary.

All five children were featured in Mariska’s documentary, My Mom Jayne

In addition to Sardelli, all four of Mariska’s siblings joined her in My Mom Jayne. In the documentary, they opened up about their individual perspectives on their mother and shared details from their childhoods.

In the documentary, Mariska also had an emotional conversation with her younger brother Tony, in which they spoke about the turbulent relationship between Mansfield and his father, Cimber, whom Mansfield’s former secretary Raymond “Rusty” Strait described as the “worst thing that ever happened” to the actress.

“My father, Matt, never really talked about her,” Tony said of his mom. “I guess it’s kind of unfortunate because I never asked. And I don’t know why.”

Mariska responded, “But your dad, and our mother, there are things that I’ve heard that I’m always fearful to bring up with you. Things that are really ugly.”

Tony went on to say that he was left in the dark when it came to those “ugly things,” which might have been a blessing in disguise.

“I don’t know that I want to know. Because I don’t want to carry it,” he said. “Because I don’t know what good it does.”