Serena Benson

From The Law & Order Wiki

Serena Benson
Title Professor
Affiliation Hudson University
Division English
Occupation Teacher
Current status Deceased
First Appearance SVU: "Payback"
Played by Elizabeth Ashley

Serena Benson was an English professor at Hudson University, and the mother of Detective Olivia Benson from the Manhattan Special Victims Unit, and one of the major inspirations for her daughter's joining that particular unit. Ms. Benson had a long documented history of alcoholism, and it is possible that this is what led to her brief affair with a married man, Joseph Hollister, by whom she bore Olivia. Ashamed of what had happened, for the rest of her life, Serena would tell Olivia that she had been raped, and it was not until after Ms. Benson's death that Olivia learned the truth.

Relations between the two of them were always troubled, and though Serena loved her daughter, she was often abusive. When her daughter was 16, the two got into a fight after Olivia announced that she had accepted a proposal of marriage from one of Serena's students. Serena was badly intoxicated, and Olivia accidentally kicked her into a wall, knocking her unconscious. Olivia retained the services of then-law student Simone Bryce to avoid jail, and neither mother or daughter ever mentioned the incident again. (SVU: "Intoxicated")

On December 10 2000, Ms. Benson's alcoholism finally caught up with her when she stumbled out of a bar and took a fatal tumble down the stairs leading to the subway. (SVU: "Taken", "Hammered")