Mariska Hargitay has revealed how a painful accident that gave a parallel to her mum’s death helped put her on a new trajectory in life.

The 61-year-old explained she was in a crash three decades ago, but it was the age she was at the time which made her reassess everything.

“I was involved in a serious motorcycle accident when I was 34,” the Law & Order star said in an interview with The Shift.

“[That] is how old my mother was when she died. The experience was deeply painful on every level.”

Mariska Hargitay reveals that an accident three decades ago helped change her life trajectory. (Greg Allen/Invision/AP)
Hargitay admitted that in the time after the accident something changed and it’s led her to where she is now.

“It was like I’d crossed a threshold. My trajectory was my own, my story was my own, without a predetermined ending. Within a year, I got the role of Olivia Benson on SVU,” she explained.

For the actress, the accident gave her a new outlook on life, and in a way gave her the chance to take her own path.

“I can’t help but make a connection between that moment of liberation after the accident from what I feared was my fate and then stepping into this role that has become such a profound part of my life. It’s like I stepped out of a narrative that wasn’t mine and into my own story,” she continued.

Mansfield died in a car accident in June, 1967, while traveling with three of her kids, Mariska, Zoltan Hargitay and Mickey Hargitay Jr., to New Orleans from Mississippi.

The family were also in the car with Sam Brody, her attorney and partner and their 19-year-old driver.

All three adults were killed in the accident, but Hargitay – who was just three at the time – has no memory of the accident.

She has previously said that she really has no recollection of what happened, or many memories of her mum.

Mariska Hargitay and mother Jayne Mansfield. (hbo/instagram)
Earlier this year Hargitay released a documentary on the life of Mansfield, looking at memories of her as a mother, family and private life along with her public persona as an actress and ’60s sex symbol.

“I’ve spent my whole life distancing myself from my mother,” Mariska said in the trailer for the HBO Max documentary. “But I want to understand her now … I want to know her as Jayne. My mom, Jayne.”