Long before Mariska Hargitay became the face of Law & Order: SVU, her earliest childhood memories were connected to one of the most extraordinary celebrity homes Hollywood had ever seen.
Her mother, screen icon Jayne Mansfield, lived with Mickey Hargitay and their family in the famous Pink Palace on Sunset Boulevard. The Mediterranean-style mansion was transformed into an unapologetically extravagant fantasy filled with pink décor, hearts, gold accents and rooms that looked almost like movie sets. Architectural Digest
The RARE PHOTOS that survive offer an incredible glimpse inside that vanished world.
A House That Became Almost as Famous as Its Owner
Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay married in January 1958 and settled into the sprawling property at 10100 Sunset Boulevard in Holmby Hills.
The house had originally been white, but subtle wasn’t exactly Mansfield’s style.
The exterior was repainted pink, with quartz mixed into the finish so that it sparkled beneath the Southern California sun. Hearts and cupids appeared throughout the property, and the house soon became known simply as the Pink Palace. Architectural Digest
Inside, Mansfield pushed the fantasy even further.
Her famous bathroom was covered from floor to ceiling in pink shag, while a heart-shaped pink marble bathtub was surrounded by gold-leaf tiles and gilded swan fixtures. Elsewhere, her den featured thick white shag carpeting, a tiger-skin rug, a copper ceiling and a dramatic fireplace. Architectural Digest
Then There Was the Heart-Shaped Pool
Perhaps nothing represented the Pink Palace better than its backyard.
Mickey, who had experience as a carpenter and plumber before becoming a bodybuilding star, built an enormous 40-foot-wide heart-shaped swimming pool. Gold mosaic lettering on the bottom spelled out a love message to Jayne, while heart-shaped islands, fountains and a smaller children’s pool completed the scene. Architectural Digest
The pool became one of the most photographed features of Mansfield’s home.
In surviving images, the actress poses beside it, relaxes in the water and spends time there with her family. Today, those photographs feel like tiny windows into a version of Hollywood that no longer exists.
Mariska Arrived in 1964
Mariska was born on January 23, 1964, to Mansfield and Hargitay.
One particularly beautiful photograph shows Mansfield holding Mariska when her daughter was only about six weeks old. Gone is much of the carefully constructed Hollywood bombshell persona. Instead, the photograph captures a young mother holding her baby close. Architectural Digest
Other RARE FAMILY PHOTOS show another side of Mansfield altogether.
Away from premieres and publicity appearances, she could be photographed surrounded by her children, playing with them or simply spending time at home.
For Mariska, these photographs would eventually become particularly meaningful.
A Childhood Divided Into Before and After
Everything changed on June 29, 1967.
Mansfield was traveling toward New Orleans when the car carrying her crashed into the rear of a tractor-trailer. Mansfield, her companion Samuel Brody and driver Ronnie Harrison were killed.
Mariska, then three years old, was asleep in the back seat with her brothers Miklós and Zoltán. All three children survived. Architectural Digest
The accident meant that Mariska would grow up knowing her mother largely through other people’s memories, photographs and the enormous public mythology surrounding her.
And that mythology wasn’t always the woman Mariska wanted to remember.
Discovering the Woman Behind the Blonde Bombshell
For decades, Mansfield remained frozen in popular culture as the glamorous platinum-blonde sex symbol of the 1950s and ’60s.
Mariska eventually began looking beyond that image.
Her 2025 documentary My Mom Jayne explored Mansfield as a complicated woman rather than simply the exaggerated celebrity persona familiar from old photographs. Mariska spoke about finally feeling that she had been able to truly “see” her mother. Architectural Digest
That makes the old Pink Palace photographs feel different today.
Behind all that pink shag and Hollywood extravagance was the setting of a real family’s life.
Pieces of the Pink Palace Eventually Came Back to Mariska
The mansion itself didn’t survive.
After passing through different owners, the legendary property was eventually demolished in 2002. Wikipedia
But remarkably, pieces of Mariska’s childhood home survived.
When the Pink Palace was being torn down, her brother saved the original pink marble sinks from Mansfield’s bathroom. Years later, he gave them to Mariska.
She ultimately remodeled her own bathroom around them, incorporating the pink marble sinks along with pink details that reminded her of her mother. Architectural Digest
Mariska also recovered another remarkable object from the house: its piano.
She described getting it back as feeling like she was reclaiming a piece of her mother. Architectural Digest
The RARE PHOTOS Preserve What the Bulldozers Couldn’t
The Pink Palace is gone, but its photographs remain extraordinary.
There is the shimmering pink exterior. The enormous heart-shaped pool. The almost unbelievable shag-covered bathroom. The red office. The family rooms. And, most importantly, the intimate photographs of Mansfield with her children.
For most people, the 10+ RARE PHOTOS are a fascinating glimpse inside one of old Hollywood’s most eccentric celebrity homes.
For Mariska Hargitay, however, they preserve something considerably more personal.
They capture pieces of the brief childhood she shared with her mother — before one night in 1967 changed everything.
Speaking of incredible homes, take a peek inside the colorful NYC townhouse where Mariska Hargitay and Peter Hermann raised their kids, or see Miranda Lambert’s transformation over the years.
