Mariska Hargitay Is Excited to Be Turning 60: 'I'm Stronger Than I've Ever Been' (Exclusive)
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“The age thing was never something I was scared of,” Hargitay tells PEOPLE in this week's cover story
January 2024 will mark more than just the 25th anniversary of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for Mariska Hargitay.
On Jan. 23, the star, who plays SVU’s squad captain Olivia Benson, turns 60.
“I’m so excited. I announce it constantly,” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. “I’m proud of it. I’m stronger than I’ve ever been.”
Not only is Olivia Benson now the longest-running character on a primetime drama with the show’s return on Jan. 18, but this year also marks her 20th wedding anniversary to husband Peter Hermann, and the 20th anniversary of Joyful Heart, the foundation she launched in 2004 with a focus on healing and advocacy for survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse.
“The age thing was never something I was scared of,” says Hargitay. “I didn’t get cast [on SVU] until I was 35 and then the show kept going as I aged. At 45, we’d been on for ten years and I just met my husband [when Hermann had a guest role on the show.] The man of my dreams. I got married at 40. I had August [her eldest son] at 42. So it was like defying all the odds."
She continues: "I won an Emmy [in 2006] and all these major things kept happening. I didn’t take anything for granted. My beautiful children [she and Hermann adopted Amaya, 12, and Andrew, 12, in 2011.] And then in my 50’s, my foundation is on fire, and I’m on a show that matters, and I’m counting my lucky stars. How did I get here? And why does nobody care how old I am?”
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Hargitay calls it all “this beautiful sea change,” one of the many things she’s grateful for as she enters her next decade.
"A lot of things happened to me and none of it defined me,” says Hargitay, who also shares the story of the sexual assault she experienced in a first person essay to PEOPLE, "because my soul is evolving and I’m letting the butterfly spread its wings.”
Those around her also celebrate her strength — and heart.
Related: Mariska Hargitay Shares Her Experience in Her Own Words: A Rape. A Reckoning. A Renewal (Exclusive)
“A vital aspect of what survivors find at the center of Joyful Heart is Mariska’s own fierce and determined heart, deeply engaged in the effort to bring healing and change,” says Joyful Heart’s Executive Director Robyn Mazur.
“The foundation, though largely focused on legislative and policy change, is always and will always be focused at its core on healing," she adds. "It is critical to our mission to always let survivors lead - a sentiment taught to us by Mariska herself.”
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