The married couple first crossed paths on the Law & Order: SVU set.
Christopher Meloni knew from day one that Mariska Hargitay and her husband, actor Peter Hermann, were destined for each other.
In a February 2021 interview with People, the former star of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit — and current lead of Law & Order: Organized Crime — told an adorable story of when Hargitay and Hermann first met. Coincidentally, the two first crossed paths on the set of SVU.
Hermann has portrayed Manhattan defense attorney Trevor Langan on and off since his first guest role in SVU‘s Season 3 episode, “Monogamy,” last appearing in the Season 25 episode “Children of Wolves.” As fans could imagine, Langan interacted with Meloni’s Elliot Stabler and Hargitay’s Olivia Benson on more than one occasion, often finding themselves in the middle of courtroom drama.
According to Meloni, the spark between Hargitay and Hermann was palatable on set from the very beginning.
“This is the Peter story, from my perspective,” Meloni told People. “He’s on the show as a guest actor, and I’m looking at her, looking at him, and I’m seeing how she’s acting, right? I know her, and I’m like, ‘Oh boy. Here we go.'”
To her credit, Hargitay played it cool when talking about Hermann to her co-star, refusing to let Meloni know how she felt toward her handsome future husband.
“And she’s just, ‘Tee-hee, tee-hee, I don’t even care about him or anything like that.'” he continued. “I just thought, ‘Oh my God, it’s like I’m back in high school, or even grade school.'”
Hargitay’s deflection wasn’t enough to throw her on-screen partner off the scent. Meloni had Hargitay pegged from the jump. “Sure enough, they start dating,” he added.
Of course, the couple would go on to do more than just date: Hargitay and Hermann tied the knot in 2004 in what was a literal “fairytale wedding.”
Mariska Hargitay speaks about her relationship: “I married the right one”
In a 2019 discussion with People, Hargitay said marriage has exceeded her expectations. The star admitted she never thought “it could be this good.”
“We knew that we wanted to be married,” Hargitay said. “We got married, and we knew that it was going to be good, and I think we both knew, sort of, what we found. We sort of knew that we found the right one.”
Hargitay and Hermann share three children, and to this day, she still finds signs that she married “the right one.”
“I never thought it could be this good, and I never knew that I’d be reminded on the journey that I’d marry the right one,” Hargitay continued. “That I waited and married the right one and it’s better than I thought it was. Because sometimes you take a snapshot and you go, ‘I can’t believe this is my life.'”
