A Family Affair! See Which One of Mariska Hargitay’s Relatives Made a Surprise Appearance on SVU

It’s a family reunion! Mariska Hargitay’s cousin, Eddie Hargitay, returned to Law & Order: SVU and made his sixth appearance on the show. Who does Eddie Hargitay play on Law & Order: SVU? Keep reading to find out.
Created by Dick Wolf, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is the first spin-off of Law & Order and the second in the Law & Order franchise. It premiered in 1999 and follows trained detectives in the New York City Police Department as they investigate sexually related crimes. Mariska Hargitay has been at the helm since Season 1. She stars as Detective Olivia Benson and has earned eight Emmy nominations and one win for her role. With the premiere of Season 25, Mariska’s Benson became the longest-running character on a primetime drama.

“I can’t believe it’s been 25 years, a quarter of a century!” she told People of the feat. She added that when she first joined the spin-off, Benson was just “the second detective” alongside Christopher Meloni’s Elliot Stabler. “[Meloni] was the male lead and a little more experienced and I was trying to catch up,” she said of her former co-star, adding: “As I became more comfortable with the character, you saw this powerful woman emerge.” Meloni left the series in 2011, but reprised his role years later on Law & Order: Organized Crime; Stabler occasionally reunites with Benson during crossover episodes.
Mariska has been known to act alongside her real-life relatives and family members on the show, including her cousin Eddie Hargitay. Here’s everything to know about the character Eddie Hargitay plays on Law & Order: SVU.

Who does Eddie Hargitay play on Law & Order: SVU?

Who does Eddie Hargitay play on Law & Order: SVU? Mariska’s cousin, Eddie Hargitay, plays Officer Eddie Montero on Law & Order: SVU. Officer Montero occasionally helps out the SVU squad and has appeared on the show a handful of times. He first popped up during the two-part Season 19 episode “Remember Me/Remember Me Too.” During the episode, he was briefly held hostage by Lourdes Vega (played by guest star Genesis Rodriguez). As a gun was held to his head, Montero begged Benson to save him and told her that he had a wife and kid at home. Thankfully, Benson was able to apprehend the perpetrator. Most recently, he appeared on the seventh episode of Season 25, which aired on March 14, 2024. In it, he helped worked a crime scene that involved a dismembered, mutilated pedophile.

While it’s unclear who Eddie’s parents are, Mariska’s father, actor Mickey Hargitay, was his godfather. Mickey died in 2006 at age 80, while Mariska’s mother, actress Jayne Mansfield, died in a car accident in 1967 when Mariska was just three years old. The SVU star was sleeping in the back of the car but survived, along with her brothers Miklós and Zoltán.

Eddie is not the first member of Mariska’s family to appear on SVU. Before his death, Mickey appeared in a 2003 episode titled “Control.” Hargitay’s husband, Peter Hermann, has also recurred in over 30 episodes as Defense Attorney Trevor Langan. In fact, the couple first met on the set of SVU back in 2002. They went on to get married in 2004 and have three children: sons August Miklos Friedrich and Andrew Nicolas, as well as daughter Amaya Josephine.
Both Eddie and Hermann will likely continue to pop up on the show, and fans are hoping to see even more members of Mariska’s real-life family.