MARISKA HARGITAY DOES ‘REDBOOK’

Law & Order: SUV star Mariska Hargitay offers a revealing exclusive interview in Redbook magazine’s August issue. The 45-year-old actress opens up for the first time about her life-threatening injury on the set.

Last October, while shooting an episode, doing her own stunts as usual, Mariska jumped and landed in such a way that a microscopic bleed began in her lung tissue. In January of this year, she was admitted to the hospital. An X-ray revealed her right lung was 50 percent collapsed. “I began to panic,” she says. “I was so scared.” A medical procedure was performed to stave off more serious surgery — which arrived two weeks later anyway. Though assured she was now in fine shape after recovering, “on March 5, it happened again. I was one out of 1,000, statistically.”

The experience shook her to the core and made her realize, “I had so much to lose, so much to live for … I have so many blessings, and I’ve learned from all of my experiences and my losses.”

Mariska also speaks about the car crash that killed her 34-year-old mother, ’50s sex symbol Jayne Mansfield, when she was 3. “Losing my mother at such an early age is the scar of my soul.”

The August issue of Redbook hits stands July 21.