At a Benefit Gala, Mariska Hargitay showed up with her kids, which is not often seen.
Hermann, an American actor, is her husband. They have one biological son and two adopted children.
The mother of three is no longer afraid to show off her children after having a hard time with the adoption process.
This family doesn’t like being in the spotlight, but there are times when they let their guard down. This was shown when Mariska Hargitay talked about her family in a special interview.
She said that she loves being a mom to her three kids, August, Andrew, and Amaya. These kids have taught her a lot, she said. She also said that her husband Peter Hermann is the light that guides her.
The family showed up at the 2023 Stuttering Association for the Young Benefit Gala, which was a rare sight. Mariska Hargitay and her handsome husband, Peter Hermann, were also there to show their support.
Even though the stars’ looks were amazing, it was even more pleasant to see their children, who are rarely seen. There were three kids following behind Hargitay and Hermann as they took the stage. They were with their parents for the big event.
Hargitay looked beautiful in a pastel green wrap-around dress and her thick brown hair was worn loose. She held her daughter Amaya’s shoulder and smiled for the picture. Amaya was wearing a beautiful off-the-shoulder floral dress. A little girl stood next to her big brother Andrew, who was dressed in a suit that matched his dad’s.
In the middle of Mom and Dad was their oldest son, August. He was wearing a blue long-sleeved t-shirt and had a big smile on his face. His father put a loving arm around his shoulders. The year August was born was 2006. Five years later, in 2010, his brothers were adopted, one after the other.
They have been married for 18 years and are still going strong. The “Welcome to 18” star is married to Hermann. If you want to know how to stay married for so long, Hermann said it all comes down to making time for happiness and laughter:
It made me laugh so hard I never thought it would happen again. Both the laughter itself and the way that Mariska is the personification of laughter and happiness.
For the Hargitay-Hermann family, making happy times is very important, so they make it a point to do lots of fun family-friendly activities together.
But things weren’t always so sweet for the family. Hargitay said that they had a lot of problems when they were adopting both Amaya and Andrew.
When Hargitay was very young, she lost her mother. Her dad and stepmom raised her mostly. She got some half-siblings during this time, which made her realize that families can be made in more than one way besides the traditional nuclear family.
Hermann got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. He gave her a beautiful worn platinum band set with nine round diamonds. They got married in 2004.
Speaking about the “devastating” times she and her husband went through while trying to adopt, Hargitay makes it clear that the process is not for the faint of heart.
Hargitay had always planned for her family to have more than one child. When she had her first son at age 42, she and her husband knew they wanted to have more children.
She grew up with a stepmother and half-siblings, but Hargitay has always known she wants to adopt. A trip to Thailand with her family served to strengthen this early maternal feeling she already had:
“When I was nine or ten years old, I remember being in Thailand and India and seeing kids lying alone in the street. I wondered where their moms were.”I remember thinking, “I want to take them all home!”
These two people chose to start the adoption process after they met and got married in 2004. The couple tried different things and had a five-hour home visit, but nothing worked:
“There were a few situations that didn’t work out…”But, even though it seems strange, the most disappointing moment was also the most important one for building a family.
The couple’s emotions started to get worse as their dreams of adopting a child were constantly dashed for a variety of reasons, such as the birthmother changing her mind at the last minute, an experience Hargitay describes as, to say the least, “painful.” But they were able to succeed in the end because they didn’t give up and relied on each other.
A few weeks before she was due to be born in the U.S., Amaya Josephine Hermann was welcomed into the Hargitay-Hermann family. Hargitay and her husband were thrilled when the baby girl was born and fell in love with her right away. After four to six months, her baby brother Andrew Nicolas joined the group. He was born two months early.
They thought they were done adopting babies, so Andrew was a surprise. It was still impossible for them to say no when their lawyer called again to ask if they were still interested. What August, August’s protective big brother, had to say about the whole thing, his loving mom said:
“August thinks this was all his idea!” Amaya came when he said, “I want a baby sister.” He then said, “I want a baby brother,” and Andrew came. August has a pretty good and strong vibe!”
It’s clear that Hargitay and Hermann value building a family based on love, joy, and acceptance of different cultures since they are the heads of their own. A lot about them as people and as a couple can be seen in how they raise their kids.
He was born in New York but grew up in Germany until he was ten years old. When he got back to the United States, he went to Yale University to learn and master English. He then taught English for a while before switching careers and becoming an actor.
Once Hermann found what he loved doing, he got a guest role on the second season of the highly acclaimed show “Law & Order: SVU.” That’s where he met Hargitay, who would later become his wife and a regular on the show.
The couple went on their first date after meeting on set. They got married in 2004. Hargitay said she knew right away that Hermann was the one for her as soon as he asked her to go to church with him on their first date:
“Peter thought I was crying because the service moved me so much, but I was really just crying because I knew he was the one.”
Hermann talks about the moment he knew Hargitay was the one for him in a slightly more philosophical way when he talks about his thoughts. Hermann says the following:
“When I saw Mariska with all the people she loved around her, it was like seeing someone who was now in the ground and was dying to be planted there.” “There were so many people and so much love, and I thought, ‘I want to be a part of that soil.’”
Hermann got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. He gave her a beautiful worn platinum band set with nine round diamonds. They got married in 2004. Since then, they’ve been happily married, and Hermann says that the reason their relationship stays strong is because they always find their way back to each other, through good times and bad:
“It’s this amazingly, wonderfully silly way that we can swing back and forth as many times as we want every day, but we know we’re going to the same place.”
With their three cute kids, Hargitay and Hermann have built the perfect family. Even though they had to face problems head-on while they were building the family they wanted, they stuck with it and did great in the end.
