“I blamed myself” - Mariska Hargitay reveals husband Peter Hermann's reaction to her sexual assault

Mariska Hargitay, 61, disclosed the shocking news of a friend r*ping her in her thirties in an essay she wrote for People in January last year. Over a year later, she reflected on the incident and how her husband, Peter Hermann, reacted to the traumatic and abuasive incident and stood beside her.

During her recent appearance on the June 25 episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star recalled the deeply upsetting experience and confessed to blaming herself for what happened with her.

She shared with Alex Cooper, as E! News cited,

"So many people blame themselves, myself included. I couldn't process that I couldn't get out of it. I have gotten out of so many things through my intellect, through comedy, through just outsmarting it."

Hargitay further added,

"I couldn't get out of this. That just lived in me, and so I blamed myself. Then it got to the point where it just became so clear what happened."

Mariska Hargitay opened up about her s**ual assault

The devastating incident shook Mariska. She did not disclose the unfortunate news to her husband for a long time. Instead of coming out to her partner and sharing her trauma, she refused to accept the truth.

Later, Mariska Hargitay mustered up the courage to face what had happened and talk with Peter Hermann. Recalling their conversation, she shared during the podcast,

"I told my husband, and he said, he looked at me like, 'Mariska, you said that you were never s**ually assaulted. You were.' That's why I understand about denial and dissociating."

The Come the Morning actress needed time to understand the reality of the situation and process the abuse.

Reflecting on learning to live with the truth, she expressed,

"I'm grateful for that part of myself that kept me safe, for that part of myself that said, 'You're not ready to deal with it.'"

Hargitay further continued,

"There's no blame. We have to support ourselves. We have to be ready. We have to build an infrastructure within ourselves and external support, so that we know that we’ll be heard and that we’ll be understood and that the timing is right."

For a cover story for People, Mariska Hargitay wrote,

"A man raped me in my thirties. It wasn’t s**ual at all. It was dominance and control. Overpowering control."

In her heartbreaking story, she penned,

"He was a friend. Then he wasn’t. I tried all the ways I knew to get out of it. I tried to make jokes, to be charming, to set a boundary, to reason, to say no. He grabbed me by the arms and held me down. I was terrified. I didn’t want it to escalate to violence. I now know it was already sexual violence, but I was afraid he would become physically violent. I went into freeze mode, a common trauma response when there is no option to escape. I checked out of my body."

Remembering how she felt and the anguish and shock she experienced, she wrote,

"I couldn’t process it. I couldn’t believe that it happened. That it could happen. So I cut it out. I removed it from my narrative. I now have so much empathy for the part of me that made that choice because that part got me through it. It never happened. Now I honor that part: I did what I had to do to survive."

In 2004, Mariska Hargitay founded a nonprofit organization named Joyful Heart Foundation. With this remarkable initiative, she aims to change society’s perspectives on physical assault, domestic violence, and child abuse.

Discussing Joyful Heart Foundation, she revisited her healing journey and added,

"For a long time, I focused on creating a foundation to help survivors of abuse and sexual violence heal. I was building Joyful Heart on the outside so I could do the work on the inside. I think I also needed to see what healing could look like. I look back on speeches where I said, 'I’m not a survivor.' I wasn’t being untruthful; it wasn’t how I thought of myself."

Mariska Hargitay tied the knot to Peter Hermann after a two-year relationship

Mariska Hargitay married Peter Hermann on August 28, 2004, in Santa Barbara, California.

Expressing her love and affection for her partner in a conversation with People, she shared,

"We got married and we knew that it was going to be good. We sort of knew that we found the right one."

Looking back at the moment of realization, Peter detailed how he knew he wanted to marry her beau.

He shared with the outlet,

"I actually saw Mariska with all of the people that she loved around her. It was like seeing this person who was now in the soil… which was this abundance of people and this abundance of love and I thought, 'I want to be part of that soil.'"

They are proud parents to three children: son August Miklos Friedrich, adopted daughter Amaya Josephine, and adopted son Andrew Nicolas.