Mariska Hargitay Reflects on ‘Pain and Trauma’ From Childhood: She Had to ‘Face Demons’

Mariska Hargitay opened up about her painful childhood trauma, which included being in a car crash that killed her mother, silver screen bombshell Jayne Mansfield.

The Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star, 60, first gushed about how great she was feeling about her milestone age during a Thursday, October 24, appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show.

“This is my badass era. I turned 60. 60 is the new 50, but 50 was great cause it got me ready for my badass era.” Mariska gushed. “I think as we age, we step into our power. Our focus of what’s important narrows down, and we get time and space back. I think the gift that I have is clarity.”

Drew, 49, asked Mariska, “Do you think it’s possible to get there at any younger point?”

“For me — and you know, both of us had these very specific childhoods with pain and trauma that gets in our bodies — and for me, as a young person, I spent my time running from it,” the long-running NBC star explained.

“The only way out is through, I mean the only way out is through,” Mariska continued. “For me I remember having a couple rough years where I had to really go in and face it, face the demons, face the monsters.”

“And then you think it’s a bottomless well of pain, you think that you’re never going to get out, but then you do … And then you do and it’s like ‘pwew,'” she said, making an explosion noise and adding, “I kind of went through the fire.”

Mariska was just 3 years old in 1967 when she and her mother were in a car accident. Jayne died at 34 years old, and Mariska was left with a scar on the side of her head. Her two older brothers were also in the car and survived.

“I have so many blessings, and I’ve learned from all of my experiences and my losses. I think you learn to feel grateful when you are exposed at such a young age to the fact that bad things can happen. I look at all the things life has allowed me to do, and I feel like the luckiest person in the world,” the Emmy winner told Redbook in 2009.

“As tragic as her mom’s death was, she had her dad (Mr. Universe, Mickey Hargitay), stepmom and stepsiblings,” an insider told Life & Style on August 21. “Mariska grew up in a stable home surrounded by love.”

Mariska married fellow actor Peter Hermann on August 28, 2004. They met when he guest starred on Law & Order: SVU in 2002.

Together, they have three children — August, Amaya and Andrew — and watching them grow has helped Mariska heal from her childhood trauma.

“Becoming a parent erased many of my negative childhood feelings and filled them in with something new,” she explained to Redbook. As for her husband, “Everything in my life prepared me for meeting Peter. I am so grateful.”