Mariska Hargitay on the ‘Today’ show.Photo:TODAYshow/X
TODAYshow/X
Mariska Hargitaysays the process of going public about her story contributed to her healing process.
TheLaw & Order: SVUstar penned a powerful and candid first-person essay earlier this month forPEOPLE’s cover story, revealing for the first time that a man raped her when she was in her 30s.
And on Thursday, Hargitay, 59, sat down withSavannah GuthrieandHoda Kotbon theTodayshow, where she explained the relief she felt after sharing her writing.
“I think it’s a matter of physics, right?” she said. “If we hold a weight, it’s very heavy. But if it’s sand and we all hold a piece of it and we carry it for each other in our society, it’s not as heavy. So for me, naming it was really powerful, and I feel lighter. And it was time not to carry that.”
In Hargitay’s essay, she did not name her attacker but said that the man who raped her was someone she thought of as a friend.
Unable to process what she went through, Hargitay said that she “cut it out” and “removed it from my narrative.”
But decades later, she’s standing in her truth. “I now have so much empathy for the part of me that made that choice because that part got me through it,” she said. “It never happened.Now I honor that part: I did what I had to do to survive.”
Though “the experience was horrible” and “a painful part of my story,” Hargitay stressed in her essay that “it doesn’t come close to defining me.”
Mariska Hargitay on ‘Law & Order: SVU’.Virginia Sherwood/NBC
For 25 years onLaw & Order: SVU, Hargitay has played Olivia Benson, a police detective (now captain) who strives to bring justice to survivors of sexual violence. Off camera, the advocate built herJoyful Heartfoundation to “help survivors of abuse and sexual violence heal.”
“But also, I said, ‘A man raped me.I wasn’t raped.A man raped me,' " stressed Hargitay. “There’s a big difference.”
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She went on to say that she was finally ready to discuss what happened as she trusted her inner voice — something she suggests others do.
“It took a certain maturity and compassion,” she said. “And I was listened to and, most importantly, I listened to myself. And that’s what I urge people to do is honor and listen — really listen — to that little inner voice that we all carry. And she’ll guide you.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go torainn.org.
source: people.com
