Law & Order: SVU’s Mariska Hargitay Has Bad News for Benson and Stabler Fans
If you’ve been rooting for Law & Order: SVU‘s Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler to get together romantically, you’re going to need all the patience in the world.
For 26 seasons, the long-running NBC drama has been teasing, on and off, the possibility that the two detectives have more than friendly feelings for each other. Even with Christopher Meloni now starring in his own spinoff, Peacock’s Law & Order: Organized Crime, the franchise has managed to keep hope alive. But if leading lady Mariska Hargitay has her way, it will be a long time before the will-they-or-won’t-they pair actually act on their feelings.
During a recent appearance on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, Hargitay was asked by host Alex Cooper if Benson and Stabler will ever take the leap, and her answer was concerning for ‘shippers: “Maybe on the last episode. I think that’s when they should be together,” the actress said.
“If it’s right. We’ll see when we get there. We are soulmates in a way. We are…. But let’s see where the story takes us, you know?” Hargitay added.
And it’s not just Benson and Stabler who have a special bond. Hargitay also praised her off-screen relationship with her former castmate Meloni, who starred alongside her on SVU for 12 seasons. “We are just connected. We are so close. It’s like we’ve been through the battle together,” she described. “We know each other so well. We love each other so much. We respect each other so much.”
“We connected, obviously, by living these stories and living, going so deep together for so many years, acting, and he and I really bond over comedy,” Hargitay continued. “We have a very similar sense of humor, and we just have, you know what it is? It’s shared perspective, it’s shorthand. We are so comfortable with each other, we deeply trust each other. We know, like, whatever he needs, I will always be there for him, and that’s mutual. And we have grown together, we’ve known each other 27 years.”
Given how close Hargitay and Meloni became over their years on SVU, it was a big blow to Hargitay when Meloni suddenly exited the series in 2011. “I was devastated,” the actress revealed. “It happened very quickly, and it was surprising. It was over a negotiation, and I tried everything I could to fix it and change it.”