Law & Order: SVU Star Kelli Giddish Exits Series After 12 Seasons

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The 24th season of Law & Order: SVU will be the last for star Kelli Giddish, who has confirmed she will exit the show after more than a decade.

The 42-year-old actress, who portrays Detective Amanda Rollins on the NBC series, began her statement to PEOPLE on Wednesday: "I wanted to address the chatter I've seen online and let everyone know that this will, indeed, be my last season on Law & Order: SVU.

"Playing Rollins has been one of the greatest joys and privileges of my life. I've been so fortunate to be a part of the Law & Order family for the last 12 years. There is simply no other character on TV like Rollins. She's grown and changed, and I have as well. I started on this show when I was in my late 20s and I'm grateful I got to spend so many of my adult years with Rollins in my life," she continued.

"I want to thank Dick Wolf, Mariska Hargitay, Peter Jankowski, NBC, Universal Television, all of my co-stars, every single member on the crew and all the writers here for our incredible work together these last 12 years," Giddish continued. "I'm so excited to take all the things I have learned in my time on SVU and put them toward everything that's next to come."

Giddish is expected to depart some time during the first half of the season, according to TV Line.

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The actress shared the same caption on Instagram alongside a series of photos of her in character.

Giddish has been on the show through the births of her two children, and the writers even turned her real-life pregnancies into storylines for her Rollins.

In season 17, while Giddish was pregnant with her son Ludo, the show explored a controversial plot line where her character became pregnant by former commanding officer Lt. Declan Murphy (Donal Logue). Her second pregnancy, with son Charlie, was also written into her character's season 20 storyline.

Giddish shares Ludo, 6, and Charlie, 3, with ex-husband Lawrence Faulborn. She has been married to Beau Richards since November 2021.

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The announcement of her departure came the same day as the Law & Order franchise announced a historic crossover between all three of its hit shows: Law & Order, SVU and Organized Crime.

The crossover event will bring characters from all three shows "into a singular and all-encompassing" plot.

NBC announced that Hargitay (Capt. Olivia Benson), Sam Waterston (Jack McCoy),  Hugh Dancy (Nolan Price), Christopher Meloni (Det. Elliopt Stabler) and more will team up in the historic crossover event.

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The crossover will kick off the new seasons of all three shows on Sept. 22 starting at 8 p.m. ET on NBC