Taye Diggs is opening up about his split from Idina Menzel.
In an interview with Redbook Magazine, the "Best Man" actor said he knew that many people would be surprised and heartbroken about his separation from Menzel. The couple announced that they were calling it quits last December, after 10 years of marriage.
"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]," the 43-year-old actor said. "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."
The couple met on the set of the 1995 production of "Rent," and married in 2003. They were nicknamed "Broadway's favorite couple" by fans. Diggs added that he and Menzel - who currently live on different coasts - are still in the process of "figuring this out" for the sake of their four-year-old son Walker Nathaniel.
He said the best part of parenting is seeing his son's facial expression when he picks him up from school but admitted that the toughest part is "leaving for work when I know I have to be away from him for more than a few days."
"And just the vulnerability," Diggs said. "It's weird: You can do whatever with your own life, but when it comes to someone else's, who is your blood, it's a level of vulnerability that I wasn't - that I'm still not - prepared for."
Diggs is currently promoting his new TNT show "Murder in the First," in which the actor stars as homicide detective Terry English.
