It’s a full-circle cat moment for Mariska Hargitay and Taylor Swift. The Law & Order: SVU star recently returned the favor after Swift — a longtime fan of the actress — named one of her beloved felines Olivia Benson after Hargitay’s iconic role.
Hargitay revealed in November that her family had welcomed a cat named “Karma,” named for Swift’s 2022 Midnights hit. The singer responded enthusiastically on Instagram, commenting, “Are you serious?!!!! Nothing has ever come more full circle ⭕️ LOVE THIS SO MUCH!! 😻”
“I mean, it was only right,” the actress recently told ET while promoting the upcoming season of Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU, airing Jan. 18 on NBC.
“It was only fair,” she adds of the cat’s cute name. “There was no other name that was even an option.”
Fittingly, Swift sings on “Karma”: “Karma is a cat // Purring in my lap ’cause it loves me.”
It was back in 2014 that Swift named her second Scottish fold cat after Hargitay’s character. Swift has three cats in total, all with pop culture-inspired names. She welcomed her first Scottish fold in 2011, naming her Meredith Grey after Ellen Pompeo’s Grey’s Anatomy character. In 2019, after meeting on the set of her “ME!” music video, Swift adopted a Ragdoll cat and named him Benjamin Button after Brad Pitt’s iconic film role.
In another recent interview for her new cover story with People Magazine, Hargitay said the name was “a no-brainer” and that her daughter “wasn’t having it any other way.”
Hargitay shares son August, 17, daughter Amaya, 12, and son Andrew, 12, with her husband of 19 years, Peter Hermann.
“I mean, it’s so like, ‘Wait, what? Taylor Swift named her cat after my character?'” Hargitay tells People, recalling when she first heard the news of Swift’s cat. “And I was so honored because Olivia Benson’s awesome, but also that it resonated with [Taylor]. It was meaningful to me.”
The stars have since shared a beautiful connection. Hargitay went on to make an appearance in Swift’s 2015 music video for “Bad Blood” and joined her on-stage for her stop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on her 1989 World Tour that same year.
In recent months, Hargitay and her daughter have attended two of Swift’s Eras Tour performances and lent their support at the premiere of Swift’s concert doc in Los Angeles, California.
“She’s pure magic. There’s nothing she can’t do,” Hargitay told ET at the time. “It’s been so beautiful to reconnect to that innocence, you know? I think Taylor gives such a beautiful message to kids and unlocks these girls’ emotions.”
According to the actress, fans who listen to Swift and see her perform “see this powerful, incredible loving but tender woman. And its been so beautiful [to see] how she gracefully walked through her journey and allowed herself to evolve and truly step into her power pose, her talent, and all of her glory. And she’s got quite a bit of it.”
