For the first 12 seasons of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni were the iconic duo as detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler. When Meloni, now 59, left the show abruptly in 2011 after contract negotiations fell through, Hargitay, 57, was “devastated.”
“I was just so sad because we started this thing and built it together,” Hargitay tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. “We went through so many milestones, spent so much time together, and understood so many things that nobody else could understand.”
“I had to do so many mental gymnastics and sort of reinvent myself in my own mind, which, of course, turned out to be a gift, as any sort of growth is. But I was scared; I was sad,” she adds. Despite her initial trepidation, Hargitay continued playing Benson, helping SVU become the longest-running drama series in TV history.
Meloni, however, saw things differently. “She was left in the familiarity of what we were. And I’m sure there were echoes, constant reminders, everywhere,” he says. “But for me, it was about how things fell out—and the word I’ll use is that it was inelegant.”
“At the end of the day, how it was handled was, ‘Okay, see you later.’ So I went, ‘That’s fine. We’re all big boys and girls here. See you later.’ And I was off on new adventures, doing what I wanted to do, telling the stories I wanted to tell,” Meloni explains. Post-SVU, he appeared in numerous TV series, including True Blood and The Handmaid’s Tale, and films like Man of Steel and Snatched.
“I couldn’t have been happier. But she and I,” he insists, “we stayed connected.”
While both actors moved forward and remained close, Hargitay notes that fans of SVU “never moved on” after Stabler’s departure, paving the way for the character’s upcoming spinoff, Law & Order: Organized Crime.
“In television, when somebody leaves, there’s a grieving period, but the fans never moved on,” Hargitay says. “And I think that is just so incredibly beautiful and powerful.”
The two will reunite onscreen for an episode of SVU airing right before the premiere of Organized Crime on April 1. According to Hargitay, the moment was “so emotional.”
“It was this thing that I had really dreamed about,” she adds.
Their onscreen chemistry returned effortlessly, Meloni says: “It was Pavlovian: Ring that bell, and you get right into Stabler and Benson.”
“There was so much shorthand between us, which all goes back to the trust we have,” Hargitay says. “He’s always made me feel like I could just jump off the ledge, the cliff, the bridge, and he would catch me, in so many ways, whether it was comedy, acting, or friendship.”
This connection, forged over years of collaboration, ensures that their reunion is bound to be a powerful and memorable moment for fans of the series.
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