All About Mariska Hargitay’s DecadesLong Relationship with Husband Peter Hermann Ilana Frost, Nicole PomaricoMon, July 6, 2026 at 8:02 PM UTC 0 Peter Hermann and Mariska Hargitay.Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Mariska Hargitay and Peter Hermann first met on the set of Law & Order: SVU The couple got married in 2004 They share three children: sons August and Andrew and daughter Amaya Law & Order: SVU isn’t just a big part of Mariska Hargitay‘s career — it’s also where she met her husband, Peter Hermann.
All About Mariska Hargitay’s Decades-Long Relationship with Husband Peter Hermann
Ilana Frost, Nicole PomaricoMon, July 6, 2026 at 8:02 PM UTC
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Peter Hermann and Mariska Hargitay.Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty -
Mariska Hargitay and Peter Hermann first met on the set of Law & Order: SVU
The couple got married in 2004
They share three children: sons August and Andrew and daughter Amaya
Law & Order: SVU isn’t just a big part of Mariska Hargitay‘s career — it’s also where she met her husband, Peter Hermann.
In 2002, Hermann made his first appearance on Law & Order: SVU, which Hargitay had been starring in for three years. They connected while working together, went on a church date and got married two years later.
Throughout their marriage, the Law & Order star and the Younger actor have supported each other’s work and appeared together at numerous red carpet events, including the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025 alongside their three children: August, Andrew and Amaya.
“My husband is my North Star, and my kids are my teachers … Together we’re just this whole, happy, joyful, chaotic, crazy unit,” Hargitay told PEOPLE in March 2018. “I’ve never known anything that was more right.”
The couple often celebrates each other’s successes publicly, and in July 2026, Hermann made a surprise appearance on stage during her final performance in the Broadway show Every Little Thing.
Here’s everything to know about Mariska Hargitay and Peter Hermann’s relationship.
They first bonded on the set of Law & Order: SVU
Mariska Hargitay and Peter Herman during 56th Annual Writers Guild Awards - Arrivals at Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, CaliforniaCredit: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage
Hargitay has starred as Detective Olivia Benson in Law & Order: SVU since 1999. She met Hermann when he guest-starred as defense attorney Trevor Langan in a season 3 episode titled “Monogamy.”
When Hargitay appeared on The Drew Barrymore Show in January 2022, she recalled meeting her husband for the first time and thinking, “Who is that Clark Gable, Superman guy that I need to marry today?” She admitted she was nervous and tried to flirt with him by making a joke, but it didn’t land.
“He was very handsome and it was a distraction,” Hargitay admitted. “I’d never been like that to anyone ever.”
Hargitay “sobbed” during their first date
Mariska Hargitay and husband Peter Hermann go on a yacht tripCredit: Mariska Hargitay/Instagram
After working together, Hermann invited Hargitay to join him for a church service.
In June 2019, the Law & Order star told PEOPLE that going on that church date with her now-husband was like “getting hit with a lightning bolt.”
“I just started sobbing,” she recalled. “Peter thought I was crying because I was so moved by the service. No, it was because I was just overwhelmed, realizing he was the one.”
Following the church service, Hargitay confided in a close friend, saying, “This is it. This is the man I’m going to marry.”
During an appearance on Today that same month, the actress explained why she got so emotional during their first date.
“I cried because I was feeling something that I’d never felt before,” she said. “When you’re a little girl, your parents and your grandparents and everyone goes, ‘When you’re in love, you’ll know.’ And I did.”
She added, “And before I did I’d never felt that.”
Hargitay and Hermann got married in 2004
Mariska Hargitay and new fiance Peter Hermann during 3rd Annual “Children’s Day Artrageous” for the Edwin Gould Services for Children and Families at The Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City, New York, United States.Credit: Robin Platzer/FilmMagic
The actors exchanged vows in 2004 in Santa Barbara, Calif., surrounded by 200 guests celebrating their special day.
“We got married and we knew that it was going to be good,” Hargitay told PEOPLE in June 2019. “We sort of knew that we found the right one.”
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The actress went on to say she “never thought it could be this good,” adding, “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.’ ”
For Hermann, it was during Hargitay’s 40th birthday celebration that he realized she was the one.
“I actually saw Mariska with all of the people that she loved around her,” he remembered. “It was like seeing this person who was now in the soil … which was this abundance of people and this abundance of love and I thought, ‘I want to be part of that soil.’ ”
Hargitay and Hermann are parents to three children
Miklos Friedrich Hermann, Amaya Josephine Hermann, US director Mariska Hargitay, Andrew Nicolas Hermann and Peter Hermann arrive for the screening of the film “My Mom Jayne: a Film by Mariska Hargitay” at the 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 17, 2025.Credit: BERTRAND GUAY/AFP via Getty
Hargitay and Hermann share three kids: two sons, August Miklos Friedrich and Andrew Nicolas, and a daughter, Amaya Josephine.
They welcomed their first son, August, on June 28, 2006.
“Nobody wanted to be pregnant more than me,” Hargitay told SELF magazine in January 2007. “From the minute I found out, I was wearing full-on maternity pants. My stomach was totally flat, mind you, but I was just so excited.”
Several years later, the couple adopted their daughter, Amaya, in April 2011. “I’m deliriously happy,” Hargitay told PEOPLE at the time. “From the minute she was born, she was just surprisingly alert and so full of love.”
Six months later, the actors adopted their younger son, Andrew. Hargitay shared with PEOPLE at the time that they “never in a million years thought it would happen this quickly, but something inside of us knew that this was right.”
She added, “We knew this was our guy. Everything about it felt right. It felt divinely right.”
Hargitay and Hermann made a red carpetappearance with their children at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025. The actress was there to celebrate the premiere of her directorial debut, My Mom Jayne.
They’ve said the secret to their marriage is laughter
Peter Hermann and Mariska Hargitay pose with their childrenat the 2023 Stuttering Association For The Young (SAY) Benefit Gala at The Edison Ballroom on May 22, 2023 in New York CityCredit: Jamie McCarthy/Getty
During their June 2019 conversation with PEOPLE, Hermann said that the secret to their long-lasting marriage was simple: laughter.
“I never thought I would have this much laughter in my life,” he said, emphasizing, “Not just actual laughter. But also the way that Mariska is just the embodiment of laughter — of joy.”
Hermann explained that laughter is how 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,” he said. “But fundamentally we know we have the same destination.”
Their marriage “keeps getting better”
Peter Hermann and Mariska Hargitay attend the “My Mom Jayne: A Film By Mariska Hargitay” premiere during the 2025 Tribeca FestivalCredit: John Nacion/WireImage
During a January 2024 appearance on Today, Hargitay opened up about how she and Hermann keep their marriage “fresh.”
“I’m at a point in my life where it just keeps getting better with him,” she reflected, also noting that every marriage has ups and downs. “I’ve learned so much.”
“Peter always says this beautiful quote about ... breaking through marriage into marriage,” she said on the show. “And that is what I think we’ve lived because at this time in my life, I feel very different than I have for the last maybe 15 or 18 — and I feel [assured] up in our love.”
In June 2026, Hargitay told E! News that Hermann is a “great listener and an extremely thoughtful person.”
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Source: Entertainment
Published: July 6, 2026 at 11:09PM on Source: RON MAG
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