Idina Menzel and her 15-year-old son Walker Diggs were all smiles at the Los Angeles premiere of “Wicked” on Nov. 9. But Menzel says she thought long and hard before allowing her son to join her on the red carpet.
"I never let him ever go on the red carpet with me," actress and singer Menzel explains backstage at TODAY after she performed a song from her new Broadway show, "Redwood," in Studio 1A.
"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."
Even now, Menzel debates whether she should have let her son attend.
Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.
"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," she says. "I’m proud of him, so I loved showing him off. But as a parent, I’m still conflicted about it."
Menzel shares Walker with her ex-husband, Taye Diggs, who also stepped out with his son the following month. The former couple, who met while starring in the original Broadway production of “Rent,” parted ways in 2013, after 10 years of marriage. Menzel has been married to Aaron Lohr, an actor-turned-therapist, since 2017.
Menzel and Diggs have been co-parenting seamlessly for over a decade.
Entertainment News
"I have to say that I’m very proud of that," says Menzel. "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."
Walker is homeschooling this year so that he can travel between California and New York to spend time with all of his parents. "I can’t be away from him for more than a couple weeks. I’m too controlling," Menzel laughs.
Clearly, Menzel adores Walker.
Ever since he was little, Walker would hang out with his mom backstage, putting on face paint in the mirror while she got ready for a performance. "He was just like the kid backstage, and everybody knew him," she says, noting that he even went trick-or-treating at every dressing room. Walker has also joined her on tour in Japan, Korea and London.
"He's my guy," she says proudly. "And he's a very soulful, intuitive kid. He's the best thing ever happened to me, really."
Parenting and performing schedules can often conflict. "For a working mom, it's always complicated no matter what age your kid is," Menzel says, but it's important for her to show Walker that she's pursuing work that she loves, to inspire him to do the same. "I want to mirror that for him for his own life."
Menzel, who performed in "Redwood" last year at La Jolla Playhouse in California, said she is thrilled to officially open the show at the Nederlander Theater on Broadway next month.
"When you get lightning in a bottle, you just got to go," she says. "My husband and my son are so supportive."
In "Redwood," Menzel plays a woman who just went through a family tragedy and finds herself at the foot of the redwoods in Northern California. The show emphasizes our need for connection.
"We need to be able to hold each other up and support each other, just like the redwoods," Menzel shares. "It's a beautiful metaphor for a life I'd like to lead, and a world that I hope my son can grow up in."
This article first appeared on TODAY.com. Read more from TODAY here: