Mariska Hargitay walked into Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding knowing she was attending one of the year’s biggest celebrity events. What surprised her was how little it felt like one once she was inside.
The Law & Order: SVU star attended the couple’s July 3 wedding at Madison Square Garden with her husband, Peter Hermann. Two months later, Hargitay said she was “still floating” from a night she remembered as both spectacular and unexpectedly intimate.
The scale had given her an idea of what to expect. Roughly 1,000 guests filled an arena better known for basketball games and concerts, but Hargitay said the size of the event never overwhelmed what was happening between the bride and groom.
One moment stood above the rest. Hargitay said Swift and Kelce’s vows were her favorite part of the entire wedding, adding, “It was that magical.”
Hargitay Says the Vows Were Her Favorite Part
Jimmy Kimmel asked Hargitay about the wedding during her Sept. 9 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, with ABC posting the full interview segment online.
Hargitay said she had been “blown away” by how intimate the ceremony felt despite the number of people inside Madison Square Garden. She had expected a wedding with that many guests to feel enormous simply because of its scale. Instead, the emotional side of the ceremony remained what she remembered.
Hargitay did not reveal what Swift or Kelce said to each other, but she singled out that part of the ceremony as her favorite moment and described the experience as magical.
The Ceremony Had About 1,000 Guests
Hargitay was hardly describing a small wedding. About 1,000 people attended the July 3 ceremony, according to PEOPLE, with actors, musicians, athletes, friends and family filling Madison Square Garden.
The outlet previously reported that Swift and Kelce each spent approximately 20 minutes reading handwritten vows. Guests were also given embroidered handkerchiefs during the ceremony, an unusually personal touch for an event surrounded by enormous public attention.
They Had Shared Another Big MSG Night Weeks Earlier
Taylor Swift and Mariska Hargitay going crazy. 🤣 pic.twitter.com/gbmR3Tyf1O
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) June 11, 2026
On June 10, Hargitay joined Swift, Este Haim and Alana Haim courtside for Game 4 of the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs, an appearance also documented by CBS News.
Hargitay told Kimmel she had physically run from the theater, where she was performing on Broadway, to make it to the game. She arrived wearing a black T-shirt before Swift handed her a blue-and-orange “Stevie Knicks” shirt to match the Knicks-themed group.
The night was considerably louder than the wedding memory Hargitay later described. Cameras caught Swift and Hargitay jumping, hugging and reacting from their courtside seats as the Knicks pulled off a dramatic Game 4 victory.
The Friendship Goes Back to the ‘Bad Blood’ Era
Swift and Hargitay’s connection reaches back more than a decade. Swift named her Scottish Fold cat Olivia Benson after Hargitay’s SVU character in 2014, and Hargitay later joined the star-studded cast of Swift’s 2015 “Bad Blood” music video.
The reference eventually went in the other direction. Hargitay adopted a cat in 2023 and named it Karma after Swift’s song, with Swift enthusiastically responding when the actress introduced the kitten online. Us Weekly has documented the friendship from the original Olivia Benson tribute through their later public appearances together.
Kimmel found one more way to connect Swift to Hargitay’s other famous relationship: Law & Order: SVU. After Hargitay explained that celebrities sometimes ask to appear on the series as dead bodies, he wondered whether Swift might ever do the same. Hargitay laughed off the possibility. “Somehow, I think she’s super busy.”