Idina Menzel shared details about why she and ex-husband Taye Diggs parted ways in 2013.
On a recent episode of Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s podcast, Dinner’s on Me, Menzel was asked if she and Diggs’ individual career successes were a reason for their split.
"The thing that came into play more, I would say—he's talked about it too—is the interracial aspect of it," she said, per People.
"When you're in the theater, it's just not a thing. We all love each other, sleep with each other and [are] best friends with whoever whats to be, whatever sexual orientation," she explained. "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 of Essence, Ebony, being interviewed by all these Black journalists. He had his own stuff to deal with in that."
She added that "it seemed like there was disappointment in the community with him because he was married to a little white Jewish girl from some show that we don't even remember."
Menzel told Ferguson that she “took that on, too” and it became something to “deal with” in their relationship. "It was less about being successful and more about that kind of stuff.”
Menzel and Diggs—who are both 52—met in the mid-'90s when they were both cast in the original Broadway production of Rent. They married in 2003 and welcomed their only child together, Walker, in 2009. They later split in December 2013. Menzel remarried in 2017 to actor Aaron Lohr, and Diggs has been in a relationship with Apryl Jones since January 2022.
Diggs has discussed the divorce before, saying in a 2014 chat with Redbook, "Maybe they thought it was cute that we met in Rent,” he said. “There weren’t a lot of couples like us in the theater community—and I know there aren’t a lot of performers as talented as she is…and then you have the whole mixed [race] thing. It was easy for people to root for us.”
Hear Idina Menzel on Dinner's on Me below.
