Idina Menzel opened up about some of the obstacles she and ex-husband Taye Diggs faced during their 11-year marriage.
During a recent episode of Jesse Tyler Ferguson's Dinner's on Me podcast, Idina discussed the negative attention she and Taye received, as well as the struggles they faced, because they were in an interracial relationship.
Idina and Taye met in 1996 on the set of Rent. Idina was making her Broadway debut as Maureen Johnson in the production, while Taye — who played Benjamin Coffin III — had already made a name for himself onstage.
"It’s very complicated," Idina said. "I mean, [we’re] very supportive of each other always. [I’m] so excited for him. The thing that came into play more — and he’s talked about it too — is the interracial aspect of it.”
“Because when you’re in the theater, it’s just not a thing — like, we all love each other and sleep with each other and [are] best friends with whoever wants to be.”
But by the time the two left Rent and later married, in January 2003, Taye's career had blown up — seeing immense success on the small screen, in feature films, and on Broadway.
"When you leave that cocoon, and now, in his case … he’s on the cover of Essence and Ebony and being interviewed by all these Black journalists, and ... I think he had his own stuff to deal with that,” she said.
“And it seemed like there was disappointment in the community with him, because he was married to [a] white Jewish girl from some show we don’t even remember, and so, I took that on too,” she added. “That’s stuff that we had to deal with. It was less about being successful and more about that kind of stuff.”
The All American star has also commented on the backlash he received for marrying a white woman and the resentment that later built up inside him.
“I don’t wanna say I suppress it, but I just watch it," Taye said on Van Lathan's The Red Pill podcast. "And when it happens to you personally, even though you understand the logic, there’s trauma there. I don’t know if I could ever mess with a white girl now. And I don’t like that. That goes against who I am as a person.”
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Idina admitted that there was a time when she felt as if she was living in Taye's shadow. When they'd walk the red carpet together, the Frozen star said, photographers would ask her to step out of the picture so that he could be photographed by himself.
So when she landed the leading role of Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway, Idina believed there was a sense of relief from both of them. Taye later joined the cast as Fiyero.
"He was relieved, probably [when I got attention for Wicked], and happy and proud of me. He was always so supportive and probably relieved, so he didn’t have to feel like he was overshadowing me in some way or taking up too much space.”
After 10 years of marriage, Idina and Taye separated in 2013 and eventually finalized their divorce in 2014. The split was amicable, and they've remained supportive of each other ever since. Their main concern was ensuring that their now-14-year-old son, Walker, is happy and healthy.
