Popsugar Celebrity Celebrity Friendships Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni's Best Pictures Take a Look Back at Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni's Best Pictures Over the Years 17 September 2019 by Amanda Prahl Image Source: Getty / Brian Killian You can't talk about Law and Order: SVU without talking about its two most visible stars, Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni. The duo were front and centre when the procedural debuted 21 years — yes, 21 years! — ago, playing series leads Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler. During the show's first decade, they were always at the front line of publicity, too, showing up at major events side by side. Although Christopher has been off the show for nearly a decade now (he left after season 12 in 2011, reportedly over contract disputes), he and Mariska are still pals off screen, as you can glimpse now and then on their Instagrams. Keep reading for a look back at their friendship over the years! Image Source: Getty / Joe Kohen 1 / 30 View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chris Meloni (@chris_meloni) on May 29, 2018 at 8:53pm PDT 2 / 30 Image Source: Getty / Charley Gallay 3 / 30 Image Source: Getty / Gregory Pace 4 / 30 Image Source: Getty / Fernando Leon 5 / 30 View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mariska Hargitay (@therealmariskahargitay) on Apr 1, 2017 at 9:19pm PDT 6 / 30 Image Source: Getty / Mathew Imaging 7 / 30 Image Source: Getty / Tony Barson 8 / 30 View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mariska Hargitay (@therealmariskahargitay) on Sep 15, 2019 at 10:49pm PDT 9 / 30 Image Source: Getty / Thos Robinson 10 / 30 View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chris Meloni (@chris_meloni) on Sep 16, 2019 at 2:02pm PDT 11 / 30 Image Source: Getty / Scott Gries 12 / 30 Image Source: Getty / Arnaldo Magnani 13 / 30 Image Source: Getty / Jamie McCarthy 14 / 30 Image Source: Getty / Alexandra Wyman 15 / 30 View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chris Meloni (@chris_meloni) on Jun 2, 2018 at 9:32pm PDT 16 / 30 Image Source: Getty / Jeff Vespa 17 / 30 Image Source: Getty / Michael Loccisano 18 / 30 Image Source: Getty / Andrew H. Walker 19 / 30 Image Source: Getty / Neilson Barnard 20 / 30 Image Source: Getty / Jim Spellmann 21 / 30 Image Source: Getty / Dimitrios Kambouris 22 / 30 View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mariska Hargitay (@therealmariskahargitay) on Dec 29, 2018 at 7:19pm PST 23 / 30 Image Source: Getty / Mike Coppola 24 / 30 Image Source: Getty / KMazur 25 / 30 View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chris Meloni (@chris_meloni) on Mar 31, 2019 at 9:34am PDT 26 / 30 Image Source: Getty / Brian Killian 27 / 30 View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chris Meloni (@chris_meloni) on Nov 30, 2017 at 7:44pm PST 28 / 30 Image Source: Getty / Taylor Hill 29 / 30 View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mariska Hargitay (@therealmariskahargitay) on Mar 31, 2019 at 10:57am PDT 30 / 30 Celebrity FriendshipsChristopher MeloniMariska Hargitay