Mariska Hargitay supported by star friends as she shares bittersweet update involving late mom

It's a bittersweet time for Mariska Hargitay, but a "dream come true" nonetheless.

This month, the Law & Order: SVU actress is premiering her directorial debut, a documentary on her late mother Jayne Mansfield titled My Mom Jayne, at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

In the lead up, she has been sharing photos of memories of her mom, who passed away when she was three years old in 1967, on social media, and the latest comes from the plane en route to France.

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Mariska took to Instagram on Wednesday and shared a heartwarming black-and-white photo in which she appears with a soft smile on her face, on the plane ready to head to Cannes.

"All aboard for a dream come true…" she wrote in her caption, adding: "Taking my Mama to the Cannes Film Festival."

Fans and celebrity friends alike were then quick to take to the comments section under the post and gush over it, with her good friend Ali Wentworth writing: "I'm with you!" along a string of red heart emojis, as Katie Couric endearingly added: "So exciting! Can't wait to see this true labor of love," and Jessica Capshaw also wrote: "Yesssss!!!"

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Others followed suit with: "Just amazing! Can't wait to watch!!" and: "Proud doesn't even begin to cover it. But extremely proud nonetheless. We're witnessing her magic through you," as well as: "YAY congratulations, Mariska! I know your mom Jayne would be SO incredibly proud of you."

Mariska was born out of old-Hollywood icon Jayne's marriage to Mickey Hargitay, a Hungarian-American actor and the 1955 Mr. Universe. Before her untimely death aged 34, she was married three times and welcomed five children. 

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She first married Paul Mansfield in 1950, and they had one daughter, Jayne Marie Mansfield, 74, that year. She next wed Mickey in 1958, and they had three children together: Mickey Hargitay Jr., 66, then Zoltan, 64, and Mariska. After divorcing Mickey in 1964, Jayne wed Matt Climber, and welcomed her fifth child, Tony Climber, 59.

Jayne died in a 1967 car crash in Biloxi, Mississippi. Her car, a 1966 Buick Electra 225, crashed head-on at high speed to the back of a tractor trailer, instantly killing her along with her attorney Sam Brody and their driver Ronnie Harrison, who was 20 at the time. Mariska, Mickey Jr. and Zoltan were in the back of the car, and faced minor injuries.

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During an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show last year, she reflected about how turning 60 helped her overcome some of her childhood trauma. Noting how "60 is the new 50," she first shared: "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  that the gift that I have is clarity."

Host Drew Barrymore then asked whether she thinks "it's possible to get there at any younger point," and Mariska explained: "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."