Idina Menzel Says ‘Interracial Aspect’ Played into Her Marriage to Taye Diggs Ending | VIDEO

By

Lisa Respers France, CNN

October 22, 2023

*(CNN) — Idina Menzel has shared about some of the “very complicated” reasons she and Taye Diggs split in 2013.

The “Wicked” star appeared on a recent episode of the podcast “Dinner’s on Me with Jesse Tyler Ferguson.” Ferguson explained that he went from being a fan of Menzel from her time starring in the original Broadway production of “Rent” to co-starring with her in “Hair” and becoming friends.

“Rent” is also where she met Diggs. The former couple married in 2003 and years later welcomed a son, Walker.

Menzel told Ferguson that while they have always been supportive of each other, being in an interracial relationship brought them outside pressures.

Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs (Adrees Latif-Reuters)

“The thing that came into play more, I would say, and he’s talked about it too, is the interracial aspect of it,” Menzel said. “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 wants to be, whatever sexual orientation.”

But leaving the “cocoon” of the theater world was different, she said.

“I think he had his own stuff to deal with, with that,” she said of Diggs. “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. So I took that on, too.”

Diggs talked about their split with Redbook in a 2014 interview.

“I’d be lying if I said there weren’t times when I thought, ‘Oh, man, people are going to trip out [if we split]. 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.”