Mariska Hargitay Gets Emotional Watching Clip of Christopher Meloni’s ‘SVU’ Exit

Mariska Hargitay will always be emotional over Christopher Meloni’s exit from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. The NBC leading lady recently sat with Entertainment Weekly alongside her longtime co-star, Ice-T, and rewatched some of the show’s most pivotal moments to celebrate 25 seasons. One scene always makes her cry. Season 12 ended on a cliffhanger following a shootout between Elliot Stabler ( Meloni) and a teenage girl in the squad room. Meloni didn’t return to the series for the 13th season due to failed contract negotiations. As a result, Hargitay’s Olivia Benson was without her partner in crime. She reflected on the scene with EW.

“I just remember that. I remember that. It was so hard because that happened,” she said of her friend and co-star’s exit while crying. “It was sad. Just brings me back. It was a hard adjustment, because there was so much unknown.”

Meloni ultimately returned to the franchise in 2021 to lead his own spinoff show, Organized Crime. But his initial exit left Hargitay devastated.

“Working with somebody on such an intimate level for 12 years, we were just so close and we built this thing together. So it was going into uncharted territory,” she said. “I think everyone felt a loss of a cast member, but not like I did, because it was an intense relationship. And to go like that, to have it end with no warning… it sort of deteriorated very quickly.”

Their 25-year friendship is one Hargitay cherishes most in her life. “We met and the rest is history,” she told PEOPLE in a recent cover story. “It’s iconic. [He’s] somebody who’s changed my life so much, somebody I love…It’s intense,” she says of their bond, adding “it’s intimate, and it’s reassuring.” Both agree that the moment they screen-tested together, they knew there was magic.