**Watch: See Mariska Hargitay and Peter Hermann’s Rare Family Outing With 3 Kids on Red Carpet**
Mariska Hargitay isn’t pulling out the cuffs for her kids. The *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit* star recently shared insight into how she playfully handles her and husband Peter Hermann’s sons, August, 18, and Andrew, 13, and daughter, Amaya, 14, when they misbehave.
“I would say humor and comedy has saved my life,” Mariska explained in the October 21 episode of the *Good Hang with Amy Poehler* podcast. “I’m so grateful for that. When my kids do bad things, I call them losers, and then they say, ‘Oh, it’s not that bad if she’s calling us a loser.’ And we laugh through it. We just rip on the kids.”
She added, “I just say, ‘Don’t do that ’cause if you do that, you’re a hack and a loser. Is that what you want to be?’”
Indeed, the 61-year-old revealed that their dynamic has kept her family stronger than ever, thanks to Peter, 58, whom she married in 2004.
“This is why I’m still married, because my husband, sometimes I’m so upset or something’s happened and I’m so scared,” she recalled. “I’m like, ‘No, Peter. Something’s wrong. I feel a tightness in my chest and I might need to go to the hospital.’ He immediately goes into the comedy,” she continued, “and then as soon as I laugh, I go, ‘Should I be scared or not?’”
For Mariska, finding love — let alone on the set of *SVU* — was something she never imagined.
“We didn’t get married ‘til I was 40 and we dated for two years and then once he asked me to marry him, we got married in four months,” she explained. “I don’t think I could have handled a marriage earlier. I don’t think I’d be married. I just had too much to learn.”
Since saying “I do,” the *My Mom Jayne* filmmaker has learned a lot about what it takes to keep a relationship stronger than ever.
“We listen to each other and root for each other,” she told *E! News* in October 2024, “and challenge each other and are committed and so invested. We want the same things, and we cherish our union — that comes first.”
Despite being married for over two decades, she and the *Younger* actor have continued to learn more and more about each other.
“Peter is such a deep and soulful human,” she shared with *E!* in January 2024. “I just love getting to know him on a deeper level. And so there’s always more.”
For more eyebrow-raising celebrity confessions, keep reading.
https://www.eonline.com/news/1424096/mariska-hargitay-jokingly-calls-her-kids-losers?cmpid=rss-syndicate-genericrss-us-top_stories
