In the 10-plus years since their split, Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs have worked to perfect their coparenting relationship.
“I have to say that I’m very proud of that,” Menzel, 53, shared in an interview with Today.com published on Monday, January 27. “We really don’t believe in putting a child in the middle of anything and forcing them to have to choose in any way, and we never speak poorly of the other. I’m really proud of us for putting him first.”
Menzel met Diggs, 54, in 1995 while starring in the original Broadway cast of Rent. The pair went on to wed in January 2003 and welcomed their son, Walker, in September 2009. The two announced their split four years later in December 2013 and finalized their divorce the following year.
On Monday, Menzel revealed that her now 15-year-old son is homeschooled so that he can split time between New York and California to spend time with her and Diggs. “I can’t be away from him for more than a couple weeks. I’m too controlling,” the actress, who went on to marry Aaron Lohr in 2017, quipped.
Menzel was recently joined by her son at the Los Angeles premiere of Wicked in November 2024. Walker matched his mom’s all-black ensemble in a monochrome look of his own and was all smiles posing with Menzel on the red carpet.
The outing was a rare one for the mother-son duo, as Menzel told Today.com, “I never let him ever go on the red carpet with me. He’s gotten to the age where he says, ‘I’m proud of you, Mom. I want to be with you.’ So then I felt like it was OK.”
Walker Nathaniel Diggs and Taye Diggs Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images
She continued: “I believe his anonymity is so important and yet he’s a teenager, and it was a hard decision to be honest, you know? But he really wanted to. I’m proud of him, so I loved showing him off. But as a parent, I’m still conflicted about it.”
Given that both she and Diggs are working actors, Menzel noted that it can be “complicated” to juggle her work life with her role as a parent. At the same time, she wants to inspire Walker to pursue what he loves, just as she does. “I want to mirror that for him for his own life,” she said.
Idina Menzel and ex-husband Taye Diggs publicly faced struggles as a result of their interracial relationship. “It’s very complicated. 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,” Menzel, […]
She went on to gush: “He’s my guy. And he’s a very soulful, intuitive kid. Hs’s the best thing [that’s] ever happened to me, really.”
Menzel even noted that Walker and her husband have been “so supportive” of her latest Broadway show, Redwood. The musical, which opens on February 13, stars Menzel as a woman looking to find herself in Northern California’s redwood forest after experiencing a family tragedy.
Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs arrive at the 2013 Screen Actors Guild Awards Jeff Vespa/WireImage
Last year, Diggs exclusively told Us Weekly that keeping Walker’s best interests in mind helped him work through his and Menzel’s separation. “As you could imagine, when a couple splits you’re caught up in your own feelings,” he explained in May 2024. “But I was thinking of Walker and that helped take me out of my own head. And it gave me a place to focus the energy. And then once we started, then it was working and we just stayed on that track. We’re proud of ourselves.”
One month prior, Diggs revealed that Walker inherited his and Menzel’s talent for singing. “He’s got a beautiful voice,” he exclusively told Us in April 2024. “He’s hilarious. He’s very good-looking. He can do all the things that I can do even better.”
