Even hard-nosed Detective Stabler gets emotional when it comes to dropping off his youngest son at college and returning to an empty nest.
"Law & Order: Organized Crime" star Christopher Meloni spoke with Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager on TODAY Wednesday about what it was like for he and his wife, Sherman Williams, to drop off their youngest son, Dante, 19, at college recently.
Their daughter, Sophia, 22, is already out of the house, so Dante going off to school means an eerily quiet home for the parents.
"You take the steps necessary, and everything is great, and then you get home and it feels like you hear the wind whistling through the hallways," he said before laughing. "Tumbleweeds. There's an emptiness. It's tough, I'm dealing with it right now. It's a real thing."
"There’s an emptiness. It’s tough, I’m dealing with it right now. It’s a real thing.”
Chris Meloni
However, there is an upside: He can spend more time with his wife, whom he married in 1995.
"Honestly, every night has a potential to be date night," he said. "You get a little closer, and you walk a little closer and slower."
The two have had an enduring marriage in a business where that’s not easy to achieve.
“What has been great is the longer you’re married and you go through all the things that you go through as a married couple ... if you can tough it out and you can find the reasons why you loved them and were attracted to them in the first place, and those just grow and those feelings and strengths of the other person solidify, it’s just great,” he said.
Meloni often shares glimpses on Instagram of his family life, whether it's getting in a workout at the gym with Dante or going on a hike with Sophia.
Speaking of workouts: Meloni, 62, also dispelled a myth to Hoda and Jenna. After baring it all in a Peloton ad last year, the famously fit actor said at the 2022 NBCUniversal upfronts that he works out naked.
He told Hoda and Jenna he was just delirious after multiple consecutive interviews that day and "just wanted to spice it up." He does not actually work out naked.
"No," he said. "Is that disappointment or relief?"
Meloni appeared on TODAY on behalf of the Global Lyme Alliance, which raises money for research and to raise awareness of Lyme disease. He said his family has dealt with the disease "firsthand."