Mariska Hargitay on When She and Christopher Meloni’s SVU Characters ‘Should Be Together’

Mariska Hargitay finally has an answer for when she thinks Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler should be together.

The Law & Order: SVU star, 61, weighed in on the highly-contested question about her character and Christopher Meloni’s on the June 25 episode of Call Her Daddy.

Since the show’s premiere in 1999, Benson and Stabler’s onscreen chemistry has led fans to root for them to be together, but after more than two decades, they’ve still only come as close as a near-kiss that Benson put a stop to in season 24.

Hargitay knows that fans want Benson and Stabler to be together, and she has an idea of when that should happen.

When host Alex Cooper asked the actress about the will-they-won’t-they dynamic she and Meloni, 64, have onscreen and if Benson and Stabler will “ever end up together,” Hargitay finally gave in.

“Maybe on the last episode,” she said. “I think that’s when they should be together.”

Still, she said that should only happen “if it’s right.”

“We’ll see when we get there,” she added.

Regardless of whether they end up together, Hargitay said her costar has had a “profound impact” on her life and her career.

“We are soulmates in a way. We are,” she said of Meloni. “And I think that. I mean, Chris has had a profound impact on my life, my artistry. I think we’ve had a big impact on each other.”

In the same way that the two are “soulmates” in real life, Hargitay said that their characters are too.

As for how their romance might unfold onscreen, she teased, “Let’s see where the story takes us, you know?”

Hargitay has previously said that both she and Meloni want to get it right when their characters finally do take things to the next step.

Following their near-kiss in season 24, Hargitay said that the romance between Benson and Stabler has been “such a long time coming, we just want to make sure and get it right” on the Today show.

She also admitted that she and Meloni were onboard for that intimate moment to be the one where they finally kissed.

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“To be honest with you, Chris and I thought it should go one way and the powers that be didn’t, so it got changed at the last minute, that near kiss,” she told Variety. “Our chemistry is undeniable. It’s just the way it is.”

The pair “want to hold the tension and do what’s right and truthful for both characters,” though, so they don’t want to rush it, she said.