Christopher Meloni’s ‘SVU’ Exit Surprised & ‘Devastated’ Mariska Hargitay

Meredith Jacobs June 25, 2025, 12:31 pm

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For 12 seasons on Law & Order: SVU, Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) solved the show’s cases as partners. Then, Meloni exited the show after the Season 12 finale. (See them in his final season of SVU in the photo above.)

Hargitay appeared on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast posted on Wednesday, June 25, and host Alex Cooper asked about her reaction to Meloni’s exit in 2011. (Watch the full video above.)

“I was devastated. I was devastated. 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,” Hargitay admitted. “He was ready to go, he went on and did all these other great shows, great work.”

Meloni then returned to the world of Law & Order with his own spinoff, Organized Crime, in 2021. Following the announcement of his show in 2020, Meloni told TV Insider, “There are certain things that have transpired in my life that made me more comfortable in going back into this world.”

Organized Crime premiered with a two-hour crossover with SVU, reuniting Benson and Stabler onscreen and showing fans that the chemistry was still there between real-life friends Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni. The crossovers have continued between the two shows since.

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Working together, as they continue to do, is like “getting back on the bicycle,” Meloni told TV Insider after the Organized Crime Season 5 launch. “It’s just really a shorthanded love affair, professional admiration, mutual admiration. We just speak the same language and we just cut to the chase of what it is we’re trying to accomplish in the scene, in the arc, whatever it may be.”

Hargitay also spoke about their friendship on “Call Her Daddy.”

“We are just connected. We are so close. It’s like we’ve been through the battle together. 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 going so deep together for so many years, acting, and he and I really bond over comedy. We have a very similar sense of humor,” she said. “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.”

Hargitay also acknowledged that following Meloni’s SVU departure, “I got to meet some of my favorite humans. All the actors that have come on SVU, it’s a — I will say this: It’s a magical place. It’s a magical place to work. Everyone is deeply, deeply invested. And my favorite thing of all of it is when guest stars come and say to me, ‘Is it always like this year?’ and I go, ‘Yep,'” she shared on the podcast. “It’s team, it’s fun, we laugh and we get it done. We are so focused. … We know when to play, we know when to work, we have been together so long, there’s a real intimacy. I’m very close with my crew. We text. We love each other and we are a team. And if somebody’s not invested, they’re out. We bring our A-game, best idea wins, and it is a joy and I look forward to going to work every day, and you can’t believe how much we laugh.”

Law & Order: SVU, Season 27, Fall 2025, Thursdays, 9/8c, NBC