Idina Menzel is opening up about her 2013 divorce from ex-husband Taye Diggs.
The Disapointed star, 52, revealed to Jesse Tyler Furguson during his episode on Tuesday Dinner is on me podcast that responding to the “interracial aspect” of her marriage to Diggs, 52, has affected their relationship.
“The thing that came into play more, I would say — he also talked about it — was the interracial aspect,” Menzel said when asked if their career successes played a role.
“When you’re in the theater, it’s just not a thing. We all love each other, we sleep with each other and [are] best friends with whoever you’re with, whatever sexual orientation,” she continued. “But when you leave that cocoon, that bubble, in his case he’s [in] PEOPLE’s 50 most beautiful people… He was on the cover Essence, Ebony, who were interviewed by all these black journalists. He had his own things to deal with in that.”
Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs visit Chopard at the 2012 Elton John AIDS Foundation 20th Annual Academy Awards.
Stefanie Keenan/Getty
Menzel — who met Diggs during the original Broadway production Lease in the mid-’90s — at the time he explained that “it seemed like there was a disenchantment with him because he was married to a little white Jewish girl from some show we don’t even remember.”
As she told Ferguson, she “took it on” and it became “something we had to deal with”. She added: “It was less about success and more about things like that.”
Diggs previously spoke about the couple’s split during a 2014 interview with The Red Book. “I’d be lying if I said there weren’t moments when I thought, ‘Oh man, people are going to fly out [if we split]’, he said then.
“Maybe they thought it was cute that we met Lease,” Diggs added. “In the theater community, there were not many couples like us — and me knowing there aren’t many performers who are as talented as she is … and then you have everything mixed up [race] thing. It was easy for people to root for us.”
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Menzel and Diggs married in 2003 and had a son, Walker, in 2009. They announced their separation in December 2013. Menzel then married actor Aaron Lohr in September 2017, and Diggs began a relationship with Apryl Jones in January 2022.
Despite the divorce, the couple continues to make co-parenting with Walker, 14, a priority.
In 2022, Diggs told host Janine Rubenstein on the PEOPLE Every Day podcast that Menzel “has a career and her own relationships and still makes sure Walker is where she needs to be when she needs to be.”
“She has the best coaches and the best teachers, and we are in the best schools, and it’s all because of her,” the actor continued.
And back in August, Menzel opened up about Walker’s upbringing. During the performance at Today with Hod and Jenna, said her teenager is grown and has his own interests — and they don’t always involve his mom singing. ”
He’s very proud of me when he actually sees me sing,” she said. “But at home he just kind of tells me to shut up.” She added: “Oh, in the car, if I’m singing in front of his friends … Well, no, he doesn’t look just give me the stink eye, but will say, ‘Mom, close it’. ”
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Source: HIS Education