Mariska Hargitay Recalls ‘Knees Getting Weak’ the 1st Time She Saw Husband Peter Hermann

When Mariska Hargitay first crossed paths with her now-husband, Peter Hermann , it was something out of a fairy tale.

“My knees getting weak,” Hargitay, 60, recalled to Entertainment Tonight on Wednesday, June 4, of what stuck in her mind from their initial meeting. “It’s so amazing. It’s so amazing.”

Hargitay met Hermann, now 56, when he made a guest appearance as Trevor Langan on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 3 episode “Monogamy” in 2002. (He has since continued to appear throughout the hit NBC drama , where Hargitay has played Olivia Benson since the show’s 1999 debut.)

Hargitay later revealed that she got emotional after her first date with Hermann. “I cried because I was feeling something that I’d never felt before, but I kind of knew what it was … when you’re a little girl, everyone goes, ‘When you’re in love, you’ll know.’ And I did,” she explained during a 2019 appearance on Today With Hoda & Jenna . “And before I did I’d never felt that. And so when I was sitting in church, it was so hilarious, because Peter was like, ‘Oh, my god, she’s so moved.’”

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The couple went on to tie the knot in 2004 in Santa Barbara, California. Hargitay and Hermann expanded their family when they welcomed their son August in June 2006. They have since adopted daughter Amaya and son Andrea in 2011.

While balancing her career and her family, Hargitay gushed that her husband is “an incredible support system.”

“He’s an actor so he also understands,” she told Us Weekly in June 2018. “I try to keep it organic. The kids come to set all the time. I have worked out my schedule a bit that I have a little more flexibility. I have a great time behind me.”

Years later, Hargitay said that her and Hermann’s romance “just keeps getting better” with time.

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“And marriage is not always like this, or any relationship that is deep in matters, but I have learned so much,” she said on Today With Hoda & Jenna in January 2024. “Peter always says this beautiful quote about … breaking through marriage into marriage. 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 [years] — and I feel [assured] up in our love.”