Mariska Hargitay Once Shared She Almost Left ‘Law & Order SVU’ After Her Pregnancy

Law & Order SVU star Mariska Hargitay has been a part of the show ever since its inception . But because she’d had such a long career, there have been a few times where Hargitay came close to leaving the show. And perhaps she came closest after becoming a mother.

Mariska Hargitay didn’t want to leave her son’s side for ‘Law & Order SVU’

Hargitay’s almost perfect attendance record on SVU was disrupted after the actor went on maternity leave. The actor was expecting her and husband Peter Hermann ’s first child, August, in 2006. Before his birth, Hargitay was deep in her work as detective Olivia Benson. To accommodate Hargitay’s pregnancy, she was written out of the show for a few episodes.

According to a post she wrote online, however, Hargitay might’ve been willing to work some days while pregnant if the showrunners allowed it.

“Not sure if you’ve heard, but the producers have decided not to make Olivia pregnant, so I won’t be in a few episodes. But don’t worry, the writers are working on some really great story lines, and there will be a special guest star filling in for me,” she once said according to Live Journal .

Hargitay was itching to return to work during her pregnancy. But after she had August , Hargitay found herself thinking about leaving the show for the first time for her son’s sake. It was a thought that didn’t last long.

“After having the baby I was off for six months, and in eight years I’ve never been off for so long,” Hargitay said in a 2007 interview with Herald Sun (via People ). “So you’d think you’d get rusty. [But] then I had my child, and thought, ‘I’ll never be able to leave his side again. I have to get off the show. But as soon as I went back to SVU it was truly like — after an hour and a half — it was like I never left.’ I thought, ‘How could this happen? How, in the eighth year, could I be completely revitalized, re-energized, re-inspired to approach this in a new way?’”

It helped that August was able to tag along with his mother when she was back on set.

“And it was obviously a gift to have my son able to come to work with me every day. I don’t feel like I’m pulled…I feel like I’m so lucky because I’m living my dream. I didn’t have to choose,” she said.

Mariska Hargitay once revealed the hardest part about balancing motherhood with ‘Law & Order SVU’

August couldn’t be with Hargitay all the time while she was filming SVU , especially after he’d gotten older. Because of the hours Hargitay invested on the show, she mostly wanted to spend time with her son when returning home.

“ It’s a special bonding time and lots of interesting things come out when he is downloading the events of the day,” she once told Momtastic .

But one of the most difficult aspects of being a working mother was temporarily leaving August in the care of others. Back then, this also robbed Hargitay of the experience of bonding with other parents at her son’s school.

“I get jealous that other people get to take August to school and pick him up. It’s hard for me to go to his school and not know all the parents. They all know one another, and it’s a community. I can’t always be a part of that. You can’t have everything, though,” Hargitay said.

How Mariska Hargitay handled being pregnant for the first time

Mariska Hargitay Cried Every Time She Had to Do This on ‘Law & Order SVU’

Hargitay welcomed her pregnancy with great joy. But doing SVU while she was in the process of having a child was overwhelming at first. The mounting pressure resulted in the actor gaining significant weight due to her newfound cravings.

“First time pregnant, you’re like, I gotta eat more! I have to make sure he has enough of every single food group! I did get into eating too much. This pregnancy was really hard for me at the end. I wasn’t mobile. Next time, I want to keep myself as strong as possible, so everything will go easier for me,” she once told Self (via People ).

But after giving birth, Hargitay appreciated her physical health more than ever before.

“After getting pregnant I felt so different about my body. I felt like it was a sanctuary, like August’s house. It was like, somebody lives there now—I’ve got to keep it nice and strong and healthy for him. And so now I’m thinking that someone else is going to live there someday soon, so I’ve got to get it ready. It’s very exciting,” she added.