Debra Messing and Mariska Hargitay

Debra Messing is opening up about her near and dear friendship with Mariska Hargitay.

Ahead of the 10th anniversary of the NBC series “Smash,” which found Messing playing a songwriter, the actress spoke with Today about her experience.

But the talk soon turned to another fan-favorite who has also made her mark on NBC with the long-running “Law & Order: SVU.”

While it would make sense that the two actresses met backstage at the network, they were actually been friends way before the “Smash” premiere. And in a very normal way, too!

“We met and got to be friends when her son turned one-years-old and my son was four,” said Messing, 53, referring to her son, Roman, 17, and Hargitay’s son, August, 15. “She knew that I was in New York and invited me to his first birthday party in Central Park. And as she tells it, she never thought I was going to actually show up, and I did.”

Messing recalls arriving at the party and seeing the shock spread across Hargitay’s face. “It was a nice overture, which she didn’t really expect for me to accept.

And according to the former “Will & Grace” star, from there “it was just instant love.”

While their experiences appearing on hit shows did lay the groundwork for their close friendship, it goes beyond that.

“The thing that really makes us feel safe with each other and seen by each other,” Messing said, “is the fact that we both know what it’s like to be on a hit show where there is a very passionate fan base. Where while you’re trying to have a family life and to have normalcy and you’re trying to be a great employee and a great friend and a great mom and really understanding just how hard that is and the cost that comes with having a life that big.”

The ladies understand each other in a way that no one else does. Messing and Hargitay, 58, have now been friends for 14 years.

“As much as there are other friends that I love and I feel like are my sisters in a very different way,” Messing stated, “really Mariska is the only person to truly understand that part of my life and I think she would say the same thing about me.”

“We laugh together. We both love to laugh,” she said. “We both are funny and silly.”