Mariska Hargitay Recalls Being Raped By A Friend In Emotional Essay

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For the primary time, actor Mariska Hargitay is opening up about having been raped in her 30s by a former male buddy.

In an essay for People printed Wednesday, the “Law and Order: SVU” actor recalled trying “to set a boundary” between herself and her alleged rapist, whom she didn’t identify. After he assaulted her, Hargitay wrote, she went into “freeze mode, a common trauma response when there is no option to escape.”

“It wasn’t sexual at all. It was dominance and control,” she wrote. “I couldn’t process it. I couldn’t believe that it happened. That it could happen. So I cut it out. I removed it from my narrative.”

In 2004, Hargitay based the Joyful Heart Foundation, a New York-based advocacy group for survivors of sexual assault and home violence. Speaking to People in 2020, she stated investigating intercourse crimes as “SVU” character Olivia Benson had endeared her to real-life survivors. “People used to call me the accidental activist,” she advised the journal.

Mariska Hargitay on the New York set of "Law and Order: SVU."
Mariska Hargitay on the New York set of “Law and Order: SVU.”
Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin by way of Getty Images

As the general public face of the group, nevertheless, the Golden Globe winner recalled giving a number of speeches by which she denied being a sexual assault survivor herself ― only one instance, she famous in her essay this week, of her efforts to reduce the trauma she skilled.

“I now have so much empathy for the part of me that made that choice because that part got me through it,” she wrote.

By coming ahead about her expertise, Hargitay ― who turns 60 this month ― is hoping to encourage fellow rape survivors to “be able to talk about sexual assault the same way they now talk about cancer.”

“Tell someone you’ve survived cancer, and you’re celebrated,” she wrote. “I want the same response for sexual assault survivors. I want no shame with the victim.”

As far as justice for her assailant is anxious, Hargitay stated she needs “acknowledgment and an apology.”