Mariska Hargitay Actually Met Her Husband on the Set of 'Law & Order: SVU'
Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay and Younger actor Peter Hermann have been married for almost 15 years.
The celebrity couple tied the knot in 2004 after meeting on the set of SVU.
They share three kids together: August, 12, Amaya, 8, and Andrew, 7.
Mariska Hargitay has been the leading lady on Law & Order: SVU for a record-breaking 21 seasons. Her character on the NBC show, Lieutenant Olivia Benson, has gone through some romantic ups and downs over the years (though she never crossed that line with her partner Elliot Stabler) but the actress's real-life marriage is rock solid. Here's how Mariska's relationship with fellow actor Peter Hermann has thrived for nearly two decades.
How did Mariska meet her husband?
Mariska's impressive net worth isn't the only thing she can credit to her starring role on Law & Order: SVU. Mariska, 55, actually met her husband on the set of the show! The couple was first introduced when Peter, 51, guest-starred on the crime drama in 2002, and they "instantly clicked." For their first date, they attended a church service together soon after filming wrapped and, according to Mariska, she knew right away that Peter was "the one."
"As a little girl you're told, 'Oh, when it's the right person, you'll know,'" she told People. "But listen, I had been engaged previously, and I never knew."
"We went to church together, and it was like getting hit with a lightning bolt," Mariska went on, describing their connection. She was so overcome by her feelings for Peter that she actually started sobbing in the middle of the date-which he (wrongly!) assumed was her reaction to the moving service.
"It was because I was just overwhelmed, realizing he was the one," she said.
When did Mariska and Peter get married?
While Mariska fell in love at first sight, Peter's feelings took a bit longer to develop. Still, like his wife, he can remember the exact moment he knew she was the woman he wanted to marry.
"It was Mariska's birthday, 40th birthday," Peter recalled. "And I actually saw [her] with all of the people that she loved around her. It was like seeing this person who was now in the soil, that she was just dying to be planted in it. Right? Which was this abundance of people and this abundance of love and I thought, 'I want to be part of that soil.'"
The pair tied the knot eight months later on August 28, 2004. Because Mariska's mother Jayne Mansfield passed away in a tragic accident, she was accompanied to the intimate ceremony by her father, Mickey. In a nod to the place where their love story began, Mariska and Peter exchanged vows in the same church they had their first date.
Nearly 15 years later, both of them are still confident they found "the right one."
"We got married and we knew that it was going to be good and I think we both knew, sort of, what we found," Mariska said. "I never thought it could be this good, and I never knew I'd so often be reminded on this journey that I married the right one."
Peter echoed that sentiment, explaining he always trusted their life together would be good-but had "no idea" that it "would take this particular, incredible shape." Part of that happiness, of course, is due to their three children, August, 12, Amaya, 8, and Andrew, 7.
What is their secret to a successful marriage?
After almost two decades together, Mariska and Peter have found that laughter is the key to happiness in their relationship.
"I never thought I would have this much laughter in my life," Peter said.
The couple admits that they do fight-between two acting careers and three kids together, how could they not? But laughter is the way they "find [their] way back to each other."
"It's this fantastically, wonderfully ridiculous way that we can swing back and forth any number of times in any given day," Peter explained. "But fundamentally we know we have the same destination."
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