Law & Order: SVU and Organized Crime fans are eager to see what will happen next between Benson and Stabler.
If there’s anyone who understands Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Elliot Stabler on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, it’s Christopher Meloni. But even he admitted in an April 2025 interview with TV Insider that the characters’ dynamic is “complicated.”
Navigating work and life together for over two decades has made Benson and Stabler quite loyal to each other. But could a romance ever occur between them? That’s been the question on fans’ minds for years. And the mystery still roars on.
Below, read Meloni’s illuminating thoughts on Benson and Stabler’s dynamic:
Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay are trying to find a “satisfying way home” for Benson and Stabler’s story on Law & Order
Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) appear in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 24 Episode 22.
“I think [Hargitay and I] and the writers are trying to find a satisfying way home,” the Law & Order: Organized Crime star told TV Insider. “We just don’t know what that home is.”
When asked how Stabler truly feels about Benson, a cheeky Meloni hit the interviewer with a “next question” before ultimately elaborating on the “complicated” nature of the characters’ relationship.
“I think it’s wrapped up in how he’s wired, how he’s built, his Catholicism. The commitments he’s made and promises. [It’s] complicated,” he said.
Mariska Hargitay thinks Benson and Stabler could get together “if it’s right”
During her June 2025 appearance on Call Her Daddy, Hargitay not only called Benson and Stabler “soulmates” but also revealed when she would ideally want to see the duo end up together.
“Maybe on the last episode,” Hargitay said. “I think that’s when they should be together… If it’s right. We’ll see when we get there.”
Three years prior on The Drew Barrymore Show, Hargitay said this about Benson and Stabler: “The energy is there — Olivia has been in love with him for many a year, and I think that we are slowly finding our way back to it, but I want to give him the amount of time he needs to grieve [the death of his wife] Kathy Stabler.”
“We’re really trying to figure out what to do, but Olivia Benson is hurt; [Stabler] left me in a lurch for 10 years,” she continued, referencing Stabler exiting the SVU squad after Season 12. He came back in Season 22, where he grappled with the tragic loss of Kathy.
