During an appearance on the Today show to promote the 25th anniversary of Law and Order: SVU, Mariska Hargitay revealed one of her biggest style inspirations is her late mother Jayne Mansfield.
She then showed hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie a never-before-seen photo of Mansfield that could easily fool anyone into thinking it was actually Hargitay as a child.
During their conversation, Hargitay, who turns 60 on January 23, mentioned the chic bow Guthrie wore in her hair.
“Can we talk about your sweet bow?” she replied.
After giving the camera a look at their hair accessories, Guthrie claimed the Law and Order actress was the inspiration for the show’s next segment on trendy hair accessories.
“Well can I tell you who my (inspiration) is?” Hargitay replied.
“So I just found this photo of my mother when she was 8 years old and I brought it today.”
“Look at her bows! And it just undid me, this photo of this little precious girl. And I was like, ‘You are my inspiration,’” Hargitay said.
Mansfield died in a car accident in 1967. Hargitay, who was in the car along with two of her siblings, survived the crash with minor injuries. She was only three years old at the time.
Over the years Hargitay has spoken about growing up without a mother and the trauma it left her to deal with.
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“I think I learned about crisis very young, and I learned very young that s— happens and there’s no guarantees, and we keep going. And then we transform it,” she told Glamour in 2021.
She acknowledged that a lot of her childhood was spent in a “frozen place,” but as she grew older, her “life has been a process of unpeeling the layers and trust and trusting again.”
The resemblance is absolutely unbelievable! If you wouldn’t have told me I would have thought that was a picture of a young Mariska.
