Mariska Hargitay

In June 1967, she and her two brothers were asleep in the back seat of a car when it smashed into the back of a trailer truck instantly killing her mother (Jayne Mansfield), the driver and Mansfield's boyfriend, attorney Sam Brody. Miraculously, the three children escaped with minor injuries. Mariska has a zig-zag scar down the side of her head from the crash and has no memory of the event.
Has a photograph of her mother, Jayne Mansfield, on her desk on the set of Lei & Ordem: Unidade de Vítimas Especiais (1999).
Founder and president of a non-profit organization to aid the victims of rape - The Joyful Heart Foundation.
Mariska and Peter Hermann adopted a baby girl, Amaya Josephine Hermann on April 7, 2011. Later the same year on October 19, 2011, they adopted a baby boy, Andrew Nicolas Hargitay Hermann.
Godmother of her Lei & Ordem: Unidade de Vítimas Especiais (1999) co-star, Christopher Meloni's daughter Sophia.

Everything has combined to make my life in New York an amazing experience. I told my manager a few years ago that I wanted to move here and try acting in the theater. Then this show came up. Now I'm in this show that means something to me and a lot of other people.
[Part of her 2005 Golden Globe acceptance speech] Fifty years ago, my mother stood on this stage accepting this award. She was fortunate enough to have my dad with her. Fifty years later, I'm fortunate enough to have my dad with me. I love you, Dad.
[on the disturbing aspects of Lei & Ordem: Unidade de Vítimas Especiais (1999)] When I read the script sometimes, it's like "Christ! Enough!". I can't sleep at night sometimes. There's the occasional script that just hammers you, that you can't shower off.
[on her mother Jayne Mansfield] I think that she was a woman who was way before her time, because I don't know how somebody can have five children and yet still be a sex symbol! She was just amazing.
[Her tearful acceptance speech when she received the Muse Award from the New York Women in Film in 2012] My mother was the actress Jayne Mansfield, and she died when I was just three years old. And so on this day when I find myself in this room full of powerful forces, personified as women, I miss her very much, and I wish she was here.