Mariska Fought Losing Kelli Giddish, Is Trying to Get Her Back for Season 26

“Kelli is my favorite actor to work with. Kelli is my heart,” Hargitay said. “It’s a sore subject. I have a lot of say on the show [as the star and an executive producer since Season 15], but I didn’t have enough there.”

Even so, Hargitay told Variety that she now is trying to bring Giddish back for the long-running procedural’s 26th season, premiering this fall.

“I don’t like not being listened to, especially when I’m right,” Hargitay said. “That relationship was one of the most powerful relationships in television because you saw these two badass women, so flawed and so there for each other.”