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Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Mariska Hargitay says she has received thousands of letters from fans, revealing they are victims of rape and sexual abuse. The 47-year-old actress plays tough New York detective Olivia Benson in the hit US crime drama. In an interview with Ladies’ Home Journal, she reveals that the letters and emails that she has received since the show began in 1999, inspired her to start a foundation addressing violent and sexual crimes against women. “What opened my heart were the thousands of letters and emails I received from survivors of abuse and rape,” Hargitay tells the US magazine. “They didn’t say, ‘I love your show. Can you send me an autographed picture?’ They said, ‘I was raped when I was 15. I’m 40 now, and I’ve never told anyone’. “The idea that there were so many people living in silence and shame made me realise that giving a voice to these women was what I was meant to do.” The married mum-of-one also says: “Olivia is the product of rape and works to solve crimes of sexual violence and abuse. At that time, I started educating myself about those issues.” In 2004, Hargitay started the Joyful Heart Foundation, which has since raised nearly $20m and helped about 5,000 survivors of sexual abuse. Talking about the foundation, she says: “Domestic violence and abuse is spirit-crushing; so many women throw in the towel on their lives after it happens to them. “That’s why the foundation is called Joyful Heart, because I know it’s possible for these survivors to live full lives again — and to have hearts that are filled with joy.”

Source: Splash News