Mariska Hargitay It is Pedro Hermann are getting ready to celebrate a major milestone. ET spoke with the Law and Order: Special Victims Unit star at the Gotham TV Awards on Tuesday, and the actress recalled her first date with her husband.
“My knees are getting weak,” Hargitay told ET about what she remembers most about her initial meeting with Hermann, with whom she will celebrate her 20th wedding anniversary on Aug. 28.
The couple married in 2004 and have three children: August 17, Amaya, 12, and Andrew, 12. However, that’s not the only milestone Hargitay has this year. The actress also turned 60 in January and is celebrating 25 years of SVU.
“It’s been amazing. It’s been 25 years and I didn’t really get it until this year. I think (because of) the milestone of it all,” Hargitay told ET of the long-running series. “I was walking into my wrap party with my 17-year-old son (and) I remember saying, ‘Let’s go to the wrap party for my TV show that’s been on for 25 years.’ I don’t feel anywhere near finished and that’s a good thing.”
“I’m so proud of the stories we tell and the lives we affect and the way we move the needle toward healing,” she added. “I’m privileged, I know that and I’m grateful for that.”
As for the legacy of her character, Olivia Benson, Hargitay said, “Strength, vulnerability and never giving up no matter what.”
It’s a legacy that was fully exposed in April, when Hargitay, during filming SVU, helped a young girl that he had lost his mother. At the time, an eyewitness told ET, “Mariska was filming with Ice-T and was interrupted by a girl walking into the frame.
The witness added that Hargitay stopped filming after being approached by the girl and happily helped reunite her with her mother.
“It was so natural and normal. It wasn’t really an Olivia moment. It was a little girl who couldn’t find her mother and there’s nothing more important than that — nothing,” Hargitay told ET of the moment. “It was so natural and so easy and it really didn’t require thought. It was instincts. It was just maternal instincts.”
This echoes what Hargitay told ET about the experience last month, when she noticed“This little angel was in need and we connected and I could see that. So I did what any mother on this planet would do. I got to hug her mom and her, and it was beautiful.”
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