#Bensler endlessly! Christopher Meloni wished Legislation & Order: Particular Victims Unit costar Mariska Hargitay a contented 59th birthday — and had a ton of enjoyable doing it.
“Marsha,” Meloni, 61, whispered through an Instagram video on Monday, January 23, referring to Hargitay by the nickname he has for her. “Are you aware what at this time is? I do.”
Within the hilarious clip, the Man of Metal actor bought up shut and private with the digital camera in order that solely his eyes and nostril have been seen. Whereas the submit lower out earlier than he may want the Leaving Las Vegas star a comfortable birthday, he captioned the submit, “Have fun it, Marsha.”
Meloni’s candy birthday tribute to the California native got here at some point after he celebrated his real-life spouse, Sherman Williams, turning one other yr older.
“So…this occurred. My gurl. Ageless. Timeless. Steppin’ out with the young-uns to point out em the way it’s performed,” the Emmy winner captioned his submit for the Williams’ 63rd birthday. “#HBDBaby” and “#TalkAboutIt.” (The pair tied the knot in July 1995 and share daughter Sophia and son Dante, who have been born in 2001 and 2004, respectively.)
Hargitay, in the meantime, met hubby Peter Hermann on the set of SVU in 2002 and so they wed two years later. “I nearly handed out once I noticed him there,” Hargitay instructed InStyle on the time. “I believed, that’s my husband.”
In 2006, Hargitay and the Younger alum, 55, welcomed their first little one, son August, and adopted two extra youngsters, daughter Amaya and son Andrew, shortly after.
Meloni and Hargitay first met on the set of Legislation & Order: SVU in 1999 when they’re solid as Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler, respectively. The twosome, who portrayed companions on the crime drama, fashioned an instantaneous bond — each on and off display.
Viewers shortly started referring to their characters as “Bensler” — a mashup of Benson and Stabler — and campaigned for them to get collectively romantically. As a substitute, the duo remained mates for 12 seasons till the Sin Metropolis star exited the sequence in 2011 to pursue different tasks.
Whereas Meloni might have left the present, the actors, who longtime followers name “Marshmelon,” remained BFFs all through the years, typically taking to social media to share pictures of their friendship. In April 2021, the Moist Sizzling American Summer time actor returned to SVU for the primary time in 10 years earlier than kicking off his new sequence, Legislation & Order: Organized Crime.
“[SVU] gave start to Mariska and Meloni, and Benson and Stabler. We’re form of inextricably linked and linked in that means. Past that, we’re superb mates. I believe we worth one another,” he instructed Leisure Tonight in 2020, earlier than explaining what it was wish to be again on set collectively. “We simply decide it up proper the place we left off. … We simply form of fall seamlessly into that place each time we see one another.”
In September 2022, Hargitay and Meloni walked the crimson carpet collectively forward of the Emmy Awards. The Nightcap alum instructed E! Information that she’s “by no means as soon as” grown uninterested in working with the Washington D.C. native.
“I really like him, and I’ve by no means gotten sick of him,” she gushed. Nonetheless, when requested whether or not Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler will ever get collectively now that Meloni’s returned to the Legislation & Order franchise, the SAG award winner quipped, “You need the tea, child? Sweetheart, get in line.”
