Mickey Hargitay and Jayne Mansfield family (L); Peter Hermann and Mariska Hargitay and family at Hargitay's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (R)

Even before she was Olivia Benson, Mariska Hargitay was part of show business.

Hargitay’s Hollywood history includes her famously beautiful mother, Jayne Mansfield — tragically killed in a car crash that the Law & Order: SVU star survived — and her father, actor Mickey Hargitay, who died in 2006 at age 80. Mickey’s final acting role was three years before his death, and it was a co-star role on SVU with his daughter.

In her own love life, Hargitay found lasting love with fellow actor and frequent SVU co-star Peter Hermann. The pair started dating in 2002, wed in August 2004, and are still going strong. Her husband and their three children have been with her every step of her career.

Here, we look back over the years of Hargitay’s family life in photos.

Mickey Hargitay and Jayne Mansfield familyMariska (bottom right) is seen in this colorful family photo in the late 1960s as Mansfield celebrated her birthday on the set of the movie Single Room Furnished. The glamorous actress is holding her son Antonio, from her marriage with third husband Matt Cimber, the movie’s director, who is standing beside her. To her left is daughter Jayne Marie, from Mansfield’s marriage to her first husband, Paul Mansfield. The two boys in the group are Mariska’s brothers Miklos and Zoltan.

Jayne Mansfield with her children, Miklos, Zoltan and Mariska, Hollywood, USA, April 1967

Mansfield with Mariska and her siblings

Jayne Mansfield surprised even Hollywood's jaded eyes when she arrived at a recent filmtown soiree with her husband Mickey Hargitay dressed in a black silk dress with a plunging neckline that didn't stop plunging.


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Mickey Hargitay with Mansfield

Hollywood, USA, March 1967, Actress Jayne Mansfield with her children
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Mansfield with Mariska and her siblings. “My mother was this amazing, beautiful, glamorous sex symbol,” Mariska has said. “But people didn’t know that she played the violin and had a 160 IQ…. She was just so ahead of her time.”

1989 Beverly Hills, Ca Englebert Humperdinck's spacious house, formerly owned by Jayne Mansfield, is now selling for four million dollars.
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Mansfield also adored the color pink, as seen on her Beverly Hills home.

Mariska Hargitay on the cover of TV Guide Magazine with infant son August, July 31-August 6, 2006


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Hargitay and Hermann welcomed their first child, son August, in June 2006. They shared August’s first photos with the world on the July 2006 cover of TV Guide Magazine.

Mariska Hargitay and her family attend the ceremony honoring Mariska Hargitay with a Star on November 8, 2013 in Hollywood, California.
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Hargitay’s family celebrated her receiving a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2013.

Mariska Hargitay and Peter Hermann sit courtside with children Amaya Hermann, Andrew Hermann and August Hermann at the New York Knicks vs Boston Celtics game at Madison Square Garden on February 24, 2018 in New York City.
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Hargitay, Hermann and the kids cheered on the New York Knicks courtside at Madison Square Garden in 2018.

Peter Hermann and Mariska Hargitay pose with their children, August Miklos Friedrich Hermann, Andrew Nicolas Hargitay Hermann and Amaya Josephine Hermann at the 2023 Stuttering Association For The Young (SAY) Benefit Gala at The Edison Ballroom on May 22, 2023 in New York City.
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Peter Hermann, son August, Hargitay, daughter Amaya and son Andrew, in 2023

Mariska Hargitay and daughter Amaya Hermann arrive for the
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Hargitay took Amaya to the premiere of concert movie Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour in Los Angeles in October 2023.