Idina Menzel recently delved into some of the intricate reasons behind her separation from Taye Diggs in 2013. During an episode of the podcast “Dinner’s on Me with Jesse Tyler Ferguson,” the “Wicked” star reminisced about her journey from starring in the original Broadway production of “Rent” to co-starring with Ferguson in “Hair,” and their subsequent friendship.
It was during “Rent” that Menzel met Diggs. The duo tied the knot in 2003 and later became parents to a son named Walker. Menzel shared with Ferguson that while they consistently supported one another, their interracial relationship introduced external pressures. She stated, “The thing that came into play more, I would say, and he’s talked about it too, is the interracial aspect of it. In the theater, it’s just not a thing. We all love, support, and are friends with everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation.”
However, stepping out of the theater’s protective “cocoon” presented challenges. Menzel felt that Diggs faced disappointment from certain communities due to his marriage to her, a “white Jewish girl.” She expressed, “I think he had his own stuff to deal with, with 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. So I took that on, too.”
In a 2014 interview with Redbook, Diggs discussed their separation, mentioning, “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.’ 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.”
Menzel later married actor-turned-therapist Aaron Lohr in 2017.