‘Law & Order SVU’: Mariska Hargitay Found It Difficult Breaking up With This Love Interest

Law & Order SVU may have lost Christopher Meloni at one point. But his absence allowed for Mariska Hargitay to tinker around with new storylines, some involving potential love interests for her character. But there was one on-screen romantic partner that Hargitay may not have appreciated breaking up with.

Mariska Hargitay had trouble getting over one of her most surprising onscreen relationships in ‘Law & Order SVU’

Hargitay’s Olivia Benson explored a few romantic partners after Meloni’s departure from SVU. And although some of her flings were entirely new characters, she once dated a character fans were very familiar with. Robert John Burke’s Ed Tucker had been a part of the series since season 3. He played a stoic and no-nonsense Narc that was constantly at odds with Elliott Stabler and Olivia Benson. But as the series changed over time, so did Tucker’s relationship with Benson.

The pair would soon develop feelings for each other, which led to a brief relationship. But eventually showrunner at the time Warren Leight felt the relationship ran its course. It wasn’t a decision that only Leight grappled with, however. Hargitay had a hard time splitting up the characters as well.

“It was a very difficult decision to break up Benson and Tucker. We all love Bobby Burke so much, and we loved the dynamic between him and Mariska,” executive producer Julie Martin once told The Hollywood Reporter. “Mariska was involved in the discussions, and it was difficult for her as well, because she loves acting with Bobby Burke and loved the storyline.”

One of the reasons Leight decided to end their relationship was due to how difficult their love scenes were to write.

“When we began breaking stories for this season, trying to incorporate that relationship, we realized there just wasn’t enough time to delve deeply, to really explore their relationship issues, to do them justice, like This Is Us does so well, for example,” Martin said.

Why Warren Leight chose to make Ed Tucker Mariska Hargitay’s new love interest

Given Tucker’s behavior and personality in previous SVU seasons, the character might’ve seemed like an odd choice to become a love interest. But Leight saw an opportunity to add new layers to Tucker that he lacked during the show’s earlier years.

“I know the fans have very strong feelings about anything involving Olivia,” Leight said in a separate Hollywood Reporter interview. “But we knew Tucker would be loaded. I think for the first dozen years on this show, he was Javert from Les Miz – the relentless, evil prosecutor who couldn’t see the good in anyone. The show had a tendency to be a little more black-and-white so he was a bad guy. A lot of what my now-ending reign has been about is about going for the grey and over time, I think Olivia had come to see him differently.”

Leight acknowledged that he could’ve brought in a new character as a love interest like he’d done in the past. But he saw himself more and more intrigued by the Tucker character, and decided to go in a newer direction.

“Every time these two are in a scene together, I lean in. I said, ‘Let’s use him more.’ It evolved out of that,” he said. “We just tried to show that this was a human being over time.”

Martin also warmed up to the idea. She saw a possible Tucker and Benson pairing as a chance to let Benson enjoy an actual relationship for once instead of flings.

“I think she felt that they had pretty good chemistry too,” Martin said about Hargitay.