Mariska Hargitay Adores Her ‘Perfect’ Family! Meet the ‘SVU’ Star’s Kids August, Amaya and Andrew

Superstar Mariska Hargitay is the daughter of Hollywood royalty, a successful actress and an impassioned activist, but her most important role is being a mom to her three kids. Alongside her husband, Peter Hermann, the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star is raising her beloved children: August, Amaya and Andrew.

Mariska and Peter started their family two years after tying the knot in 2004, having welcomed their first child, August, in 2006. Five years after giving birth, the couple expanded their brood when they adopted their daughter, Amaya, in 2011. Later that year, Mariska and Peter adopted their third child, Andrew, and completed their family.

When it comes to being a mom, Mariska can’t help but feel like the luckiest lady on earth. “Our family is so perfect, or at least perfect for me,” she gushed to People in 2018. “Together we’re just this whole, happy, joyful, chaotic, crazy unit. I’ve never known anything that was more right.”

Aside from making beautiful memories with her little ones over the years, the Jocks alum is grateful to have learned so much from her children. “The thing that’s made me a better parent is my kids. Because they taught me to really listen,” Mariska marveled, crediting Peter for being her biggest supporter.

“My husband is my North Star, and my kids are my teachers,” she continued. “Peter and I, we’re so different that it’s been amazing how we complement each other. He knows everything I don’t.”

Mariska is especially thankful to have Peter by her side as she’s juggled motherhood and her long-running role on SVU for the past two decades. Though the California native is proud to be a working mom, Mariska knows it’s sometimes difficult to balance all her responsibilities.

“I get jealous that other people get to take August to school and pick him up. It’s hard for me to go to his school and not know all the parents,” she once said to Momtastic. “They all know one another and it’s a community. I can’t always be a part of that.”

Because Mariska knows “you can’t have everything,” she’s making sure to relish what she already has. “I’m learning to be present with where I am,” she exclusively told Closer in June 2018. “I look at my life now and think, I’m on a TV show, I run a foundation, I run a household, I’m a mom, I’m a wife, I’m a lot of things. The truth is we have to live the journey, right? And that’s what I’ve learned.”

To find out more details on Mariska and Peter’s three kids, keep scrolling!