Mariska Hargitay Showed off Her Rarely-Seen 3 Children Years after ‘Painful’ Adoption
Hollywood entertainer Mariska Hargitay showed up with her children at an Advantage Function. She and the American actor Peter Hermann have two adopted children in addition to a biological son. The mother of three is no longer afraid to show off her children after going through a difficult adoption process.
While attending the 2023 Stuttering Association for the Young Benefit Gala, Hollywood actress Mariska Hargitay and her dashing husband, Peter Hermann, stepped out to show support. Though the stars’ appearances were something to marvel at, what was even more pleasantly surprising was the presence of their rarely-seen children.
As Hargitay and Hermann took center stage on the carpet, three kids trailed along behind them. August, 16, Andrew, 11, and Amaya, 12, joined their parents for the special event.
Posing for a family picture, Hargitay looked stunning in a pastel green colored wrap-around dress and wore her luscious brown hair loose as she protectively held onto her daughter, Amaya’s shoulder, who looked gorgeous in an off-the-shoulder floral dress. The little girl stood beside her big brother, Andrew, who adorned a dapper suit that matched his father’s.
The eldest son, August, was situated in the middle of Mom and Dad in a blue long-sleeved t-shirt with a big smile on his face while his father placed a loving arm around his shoulders. August was born in 2006, and his siblings were adopted five years later, within six months of each other.
The “Welcome to 18” star has been married to her husband, Hermann, for 18 years, and the couple is still going strong. When asked about what the secret to being married for so long is, Hermann indicated that it all comes down to creating moments of joy and laughter: “I never thought I would have this much laughter in my life. Not just actual laughter but also the way that Mariska is just the embodiment of laughter – of joy.”
Mariska Hargitay Has Three Children with Hubby Peter Hermann, Two of Which Are Adopted
Creating happy moments is imperative for the Hargitay-Hermann clan, and the family makes an avid point to engage in all sorts of fun family filled activities together. However, things were not always so rosy and peachy for the family, as Hargitay revealed that they had actually faced an array of challenges when going through the adoption process for both Amaya and Andrew.
Opening up about the sometimes “devastating” times she and her husband went through when pursuing adoption, Hargitay warns that adoption is definitely not a process for the faint of heart. Hargitay’s family plan had always accounted for the presence of more than one child, and after she gave birth to her firstborn son at the age of 42, the couple knew they wanted a bigger family.
As a young girl who grew up with a stepmom and half-siblings, Hargitay always knew she wanted to adopt. A family vacation in Thailand further solidified this sense of early maternal instinct that she had inside of her:
“I remember being in Thailand and India when I was 9 or 10 and seeing kids alone in the street and thinking, ‘Where are their moms?’ They were so amazingly resourceful and soulful, and smart. And somewhere inside of me – even [being] so young – I had that maternal instinct, [and] I remember thinking, ‘I want to take them all home!’ ”
After meeting Hermann and getting married in 2004, around 2010, the pair decided to start their adoption process. The couple went through trial and error and endured a five-hour-long home visit to no avail:
“There were several cases that didn’t work out. A lot of different kinds of complications [and] then after disappointments, came the big hope – which ended up being dashed. But, while it may be ironic, the hardest disappointment was also the greatest moment in terms of what it means to help build a family.”
View this post on Instagram
An emotional toll started to affect the couple, constantly having their hopes of a successful adoption thwarted by different reasons, like, the birthmother changing her mind at the last minute in one instance, which Hargitay describes as extremely “painful,” to say the least. However, through perseverance, durability, and leaning on each other, they eventually became successful.
