Singer and actress Idina Menzel said racial differences contributed to the demise of her decade-long marriage with Hollywood star Taye Diggs.
The 52-year-old “Frozen” star reflected on their 2013 split during a conversation with Jesse Tyler Ferguson for the “Dinner’s On Me” podcast, per Entertainment Tonight.
“It’s very complicated,” Menzel said, explaining how the pair was “always very supportive of each other always…. [but] the thing that came into play more — and he’s talked about it too — is the interracial aspect of it.”
“[Taye] was on the cover of Essence, and Ebony, and being interviewed by all of these black journalists, and I think he had his own stuff to deal with, with that,” the Broadway actress went on. “And it seemed like there was some disappointment in the community with him, because he was married to a little white Jewish girl.”
“So, I took that on too. That was stuff we had to deal with,” the Tony Award-winning actress added. “It was less about being successful and more about that stuff.”
Menzel told Ferguson that while racial differences didn’t matter as much in the theater arena, the couple experienced a backlash in the broader entertainment world. “When you’re in the theater, it’s just not a [problem], like, we all love each other and sleep with each other and [are] best friends with whoever wants to be,” she said.
Menzel and Diggs met in 1995 while both were starring in “Rent” on Broadway. They married in 2003 and welcomed a son, Walker Diggs, in 2009. In December 2013, they separated and finalized their divorce the following year. Menzel still has plenty of compliments for her ex-husband, who she shares co-parenting duties with even now.
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“He was always so supportive, and probably relieved so he didn’t have to feel like he was overshadowing in some way or taking up too much space,” the actress said of how Diggs reacted to her getting the role of Elphaba in “Wicked.”
Diggs talked about co-parenting strategies during a conversation with ET in 2015. “As people can imagine, it gets rough at times just because we’re not in the same city, but we still love each other and what’s most important is we love our son,” the actor said at the time. “That stabilizes us. I’m thankful for him.”