Being one of the most popular television couples has its positives and negatives. Just ask Jennifer Aniston, who theorized to Today why viewers were so obsessed with the couple for a decade. “I think there was something about unrequited love and really investing in those (relationships),” she said. “And you were investing in something that was very relatable: the one that you never could have or the one you wanted to be with, but they couldn’t quite get it together.”
For “Law & Order: SVU” fans, that obsession is Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), and viewers’ fascination with the couple has lasted two decades, despite Meloni leaving the show in 2011. When he left the show without any conclusion for the couple, fans were incensed, something Meloni told TVLine he understood. “The fans really got the rug pulled out from under them,” he said. “I am absolutely very empathetic about that; I get it.”
Now that he’s back in the “Law & Order ” universe, albeit “Organized Crime,” any movement involving Benson and Stabler left fans constantly wanting more. Peter Hermann, Hargitay’s real-life husband of 17 years, has some hilarious comments on what it’s like being so close to the ‘Bensler’ mania.
Hermann jokes that he’s part of a ‘throuple’
Peter Hermann and Mariska Hargitay first met in 2001, when Hermann made his first appearance as Attorney Trevor Langan. A recurring character on the show, he co-starred in 35 total episodes of “Law & Order: SVU,” with the most recent being March 2022. He’s had a front-row seat to Bensler mania, and jokes about ‘sharing his wife’ with Meloni. “We make it work,” Hermann joked to E! News Daily Pop. “Sometimes Chris [Meloni] and I have some things to negotiate, but we’ve gotten really good at communicating with each other. There’s a lot of give and take. Kind of in the end all three of us are really happy.”
While Hargitay and Christopher Meloni are no longer on the same show, she’s appeared 11 times on “Organized Crime” since the series began in 2021, and he’s shown up eight times on “SVU.” Crossover events between “Organized Crime” and “SVU” have also gone a long way to attract viewers to both shows and also continue drawing out the will-they-or-won’t-they drama. And while the public is fascinated with the fictional couple, Hargitay and Hermann recently celebrated their very real 18th wedding anniversary.
