Mariska Hargitay says it was a good thing she waited until she was older to get married.
“I didn’t get married until I was 40,” Hargitay said during an appearance on Tuesday’s episode of “Good Hang with Amy Poehler.”
The Emmy Award-winning actor says she was “grateful” because she didn’t think she “could have handled a marriage earlier.”
“I don’t think I’d be married. I was just — I had too much to learn. So, I just went straight to like, you know, the second husband,” Hargitay said.
Hargitay met her husband, Peter Hermann, in 2002 while on set for “Law & Order: SVU.” After marrying in 2004, the couple welcomed a son in 2006 and later adopted a daughter and a second son in 2011.
Now, at 61, Hargitay says she’s never felt more comfortable in her own skin.
“60 is the new hot,” Hargitay said. “That’s why I get so happy for people that turn 60. I’m like, trust me, sweetie, it’s all just beginning.”
She added that things are “only getting better” as she ages.
“And I’ll tell you something. I remember when I turned 40, and I thought, and I used to tell people, ‘Oh my god, life begins at 40.’ Because my 20s were super hard and I really struggled, and then at 30, you go, ‘Oh, OK. So now, it’s a new beginning,'” Hargitay said.
In her 40s, things “kicked in,” she said, since that was when she got married and had kids.
By her 50s, Hargitay said she’d hit her stride and knew exactly what she was doing.
But entering her 60s gave her “a new permission,” she said.
“We learn ‘no,’ but ‘no’ with love. And we learn, like, oh this is how much time I have left, and I’m so grateful to be alive, and I want to spend my time in the best, most useful, productive, loving, generous — but also generous to myself — way that you go, ‘I’m just so clear,'” Hargitay said.
“There’s a clarity to 60,” she added.
Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar in September, Hargitay said it was a good thing she had kids later in life.
“I also became a mom later in life, and that was a gift because I think I’m a different kind of mother, being already settled in my career,” Hargitay said.
That aside, she said she’s “never been happier” than at this stage in her life.
“I feel stronger than ever. I’ve been working out. I feel at the top of my game in a lot of ways — but also, so much more peaceful, less frantic, and wise,” she added.
A representative for Hargitay did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.
Other Hollywood celebrities have also spoken about embracing aging and how waiting to get married or have kids has shaped their perspectives.
In May 2024, Eva Mendes said that delaying motherhood was the right decision for her.
“In my 20s, I shouldn’t have even been around a child. I was foul-mouthed and smoking. I definitely could not have raised kids in any other era of my life but now,” Mendes said. Mendes was 40 when she had her first child with her husband, Ryan Gosling.
In November 2024, Lauren Sánchez said she never expected to have so much to look forward to in life after turning 50.
“I never thought at 54 — I’m going to be 55 — that I’d be an author, that I’d be getting married. I mean, life is just beginning,” Sánchez said. “When I was 20, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, life is over at 50.’ Let me tell you: It is not, ladies. It is not over.”
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