Idina Menzel: Balancing Work and Motherhood ‘Tortures Me’

Apr 21 • by Ali • No CommentsArticles & Interviews, Family

People shared an article where they talked with Idina about balancing work and home and being a mom to Walker. She talked about how she felt about Taye chasing the burgler that was in their home and about making their marriage work after ten years. Definitely a great read.

Idina Menzel has a loving husband, a beautiful preschooler and a thriving career – but having it all is not easy.

“I think I do a decent job at it — or at least people tell me I do,” Menzel tells PEOPLE of balancing her work and family.

“Walker‘s potty-training and handled it like a champ. He still has his pacifier — he’s 3½ — and that bothers me. I’m trying not to judge — it’s because we travel so much that I don’t like to mess him up in too many ways.”

Menzel, 41, is currently workshopping the new musical If/Then in New York City, thousands of miles away from her home in Los Angeles where she and husband Taye Diggs are raising their son.

“It’s hard trying to make the decision to keep him in L.A. so he can go to school with his friends. He would be with a babysitter or have to travel to me to New York where I am rehearsing all day — but at least he’s with Mommy,” says the Glee actress. “It’s those kind of decisions that torture me all the time.”
Luckily, she has her husband of 10 years to support her.

“We work at it,” Menzel says of her marriage to Diggs. “I’m not going to glamorize it or glorify it — we go through tough times like everybody else, but we love each other very much. We try not to be away from each other for more than two weeks at a time and we try to find new ways to communicate.”

Menzel recently discovered her husband’s heroic side after he chased down a burglar whom the couple found in their home after returning from the SAG Awards in January.

“He was quite the macho man there,” Menzel says of Diggs, 42. “I was annoyed with him though because I thought it was stupid. The guy could have been armed and he could have been hurt.”

But that doesn’t mean Menzel did not appreciate his heroism.

“I was frustrated with him for doing it,” she says. “But his instinct came in — his child and wife were in the house — so afterward it was sexy to me.”

On the Set of the Milk Mustache Ad Photo Shoot

Mar 5 • by Ali • No CommentsCharity & Awareness, Family, Images

We are excited to share these images of Taye & Walker during the photoshoot for the Milk Mustache ad.

Gallery Links:
Taye Diggs Online > At Photo Shoots > 2013 | Milk Mustache Ad

‘Glee’s’ Idina Menzel on Parenthood, Being Pigeonholed and Her PBS TV Special

Nov 21 • by Ali • No CommentsFamily, Idina

This article from The Hollywood Reporter isn’t specifically about Taye … it’s about his lovely wife Idina but she talks about Taye and Walker and I thought it was a great read! Also this interview was done while she was performing for two nights in Toronto where both performances were taped for a PBS special. Also she had a special guest both nights with Mr. Taye. So when the dvd is released we definitely have to check it out!

This first part talks about her thoughts on Walker (her son with Taye)

TORONTO – Stage and screen star Idina Menzel has originated the role of the green-skinned Elphaba in Wicked and Maureen in Rent.

And the Broadway belter has a recurring guest star role as Rachel’s biological mother on Fox’s Glee.

But nothing compares to when Menzel and husband and Private Practice star Taye Diggs had a baby son, Walker Diggs.

“To me, it was a gift to have this intense love for someone that I’d never felt before, for a child, that makes you feel better than anything else you’ve done,” Menzel said backstage after performing over two nights for an upcoming PBS TV special recorded in Toronto at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Koerner Hall.

She explained parenthood has changed her from a talented, yet self-absorbed artist bedeviled by doubts to enjoying first-time fulfillment.

“Ever since I had my son, I have more of a cup half-full perspective on life that he (Walker) has given me,” Menzel said with a broad smile.

“If I screwed up a high note, I go easier on myself,” she added, knowing as a mother she has a baby boy back home who loves her.

And then she talked about meeting Taye.

Menzel also told of meeting Taye Diggs in 1996 on the Broadway set of Rent – “Did a little too much flirting back-stage, you know what I mean ladies?” – and of landing a recurring role on Glee after doubting she’d ever get work again after her pregnancy.

To read the entire article go here

Taye Diggs: My Ridiculous Dad Vocabulary

Oct 25 • by Ali • No CommentsFamily

People.com did this cute article where they talked to Taye about being a dad! Love it!

Two-year-old Walker Nathaniel isn’t the only one learning new words in Taye Diggs and Idina Menzel‘s household. The Private Practice star tells PEOPLE that he has taken on an entirely different vocabulary since becoming a dad.

“The most ridiculous thing I have heard myself say is, ‘Do you want your pop-pop, your banky or your baba?’ Translation: ‘Do you want your pacifier, your blanket or your bottle?’”

The actor, who recently wrote his first children’s book Chocolate Me!, says “zerberting” — a.k.a. blowing raspberries — is another popular term at home, as is “nakedy time,” which is when Walker runs around the house sans clothes prior to his bath.

Another language the two share is music. Diggs and his wife — known for her powerful pipes on Broadway and Glee – are constantly in tune with their toddler.

“I sing him an assortment of songs,” Diggs, 40, tells PEOPLE. “We made one up just for him called ‘Sleep Walker Sleep’ and we sing random songs from musicals in a really slow go-to-bed tempo.”

But Walker’s favorite singer at the moment appears to be none other then Beyoncé.

“His favorite song is ‘Single Ladies,’” laughs Diggs. “He really gets down to that one.”

Parade: Taye Diggs: Doing ‘Glee’ Would Be the Ultimate Dream

Parade Magazine has a new interview with Taye. He talks about Chocolate Me, Raising Walker with Idina, watching the Bachelorette and the new season of Private Practice.

When Private Practice hunk Taye Diggs, 40, isn’t steaming up the silver screen, he’s at home doting on his two-year old son Walker and wife Idina Menzel.

Like many devoted dads, he has a laundry list of lessons to pass on to his son. But instead of being content to share those pearls of wisdom at home, he’s sharing them with the world as well. On September 27, Diggs brings his artistic passion to stores in the form of his new children’s book, Chocolate Me.

Diggs spoke to Parade about his inspiration, who lays down the law at home, and whether he’ll finally join Idina on Glee.

Why write a children’s book?
“This book is based on a poem I wrote back in college. I remembered being 5-years-old and moving into this neighborhood where none of the kids looked like me and were very inquisitive. Questioning why I looked the way I looked and why my hair was the way it was. I remember feeling really awkward, like I didn’t fit in. My best friend Shane Evans is a very established publisher and had published other children’s books and he thought this concept would make a good one. We just joined forces and put a mockup together and took it to some places and here were are. It’s great working as best friends on something that means so much to us, like self-esteem and self-awareness, especially at this time of bullying. I wrote the book to my kid.”

Any plans to do more?
“Absolutely. Shane has a bevy of amazing and interesting characters and stories that are in the same kind of realm of making kids not feel weird about being exposed to certain problems. So we want to build a company around that — an ethnic Disney where we can come up with all of these characters. Then we’ll work our way up to animated things and lunchboxes and musicals. We’d love to start moving in that direction. That’s the big dream. It would be called Walk Tall production after my son.”

Speaking of Walker — how terrible are his twos?
“Well, I’d be lying if I said he wouldn’t be going through them. I’m not sure if they’re all terrible, but it’s not all sunshine and lollipops. He’s become very familiar with the words ‘mine’ and ‘no.’ But it’s really hard to be annoyed because any time something comes out of his mouth, I am amazed he’s a working human being. Sometimes it feels like he’s a science project we took a risk on and experimented on and it’s all working. We read the instructions and we put it together okay.”

Are you the disciplinarian?
“It goes both ways. At certain times we’re both softies, but there are moments when I take that lead and there are times when she does. We go back and forth from being good cop and bad cop.”

Idina said Walker sings and dances as well. Are you excited for him to follow in your footsteps?
“We’re just excited period. I have a basketball in his crib. I just want to make sure he’s well-rounded. He can do whatever he wants. I don’t want him to be in a position where he’s hating us for not putting him in piano or dance lessons. I want him to experience everything so he has a solid grasp and choice.”

I read on your website you watch the Bachelorette. Why did you become a fan of the show?
“Because it’s awesome. As an actor, it’s such a keen study on human behavior. It’s brilliant.”

So you got your wife into it?
“I got her into it, I’m ashamed to say. She’s right there with me. It’s brilliant.”
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Actor and father, Taye Diggs turns children’s book author.

Sep 27 • by Ali • No CommentsChocolate Me, Family

USA Weekend had this great interview with Taye about “Chocolate Me” and on his family with Idina & Walker. This is a must read!

Parenthood according to Taye Diggs

Between his regular role as Dr. Sam Bennett on ABC’s Private Practice and raising his son Walker, 2, Taye Diggs has his hands full.

Along with wife Idina Menzel — an actress who worked with him on the Broadway production and 2005 feature film version of Rent — Diggs, 40, has embraced being a parent.

“I’ve never loved anything so much,” Diggs says of his son. “It comes to the point where it’s almost painful to realize that someone has you in such a vulnerable position.”

Diggs child-centric focus also extends to the new he wrote for children. Chocolate Me! details one boy’s struggle to fit in with those who are different from him.

“You should be proud and embrace your differences regardless if its race or religion or if something is looked upon as a handicap,” Diggs says of his inspiration to write the book.

We asked him more about being a daddy:

On his son: “We’re so excited to see what he’s going to become. He’s got a huge personality. He loves to dance and sing, and he’s very athletic. He has a wicked sense of humor.”

On splitting up parenting duties: “It’s equally divided. When we’re both around we take shifts.”

On transitioning to being a parent: “If you’re a regular human being you wonder how you’re going to be as a father, if you’re going to wand to do all of the things that you’re supposed to do. It wasn’t until after the fact that I realized I fell into place. Nobody had to tell me. Things just started to happen.”

On the first few months of being a father: “It’s like a beautiful science project. You’re constantly fawning over him, reading books on how to keep him alive, asking advice, hearing stories. You just want this thing to live until the next day.”

On being a parent: “There are all these books out there that tell you what to do, what a child has to have and ABCDEFG. But you look at other situations, I know amazing people that were born in single parent households, where the mother could only spend so much time. I’ve spent time with kids that had nannies. It’s all different. It’s the amount of love you can give and the quality of time.”

More children?
“My son is so amazing that I would be fine with him, but I came from a big family and it’s great to have siblings. I think I would be fine with two. I’d also like to adopt. I don’t know if that would make it three or two or what.”

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