Idina Menzel Opens Up About Her Personal Fertility Journey In New Documentary

On Friday, Idina Menzel’s new documentary Idina Menzel: Which Way to the Stage? released on Disney+. 

The film tracks Menzel’s career from her breakout role on Broadway in Rent to realizing her dream of headlining a concert at Madison Square Garden. It also highlights her starring role as Elsa in Disney’s Frozen and its 2019 sequel. 

Filmmaker Anne McCabe follows Menzel behind the scenes on her 16-show national tour as she balances being a mother to her 13-year-old son, Walker, and partner to her husband, Aaron Lohr, with a grueling tour schedule.

Menzel told Huff Post, “As much as I want to be in the spotlight, wear sequined outfits, get the accolades and have a crowd cheering for me, it’s just as important for me to be at my son’s basketball game, and go trick-or-treating with him.” 

The film also sees Menzel share her personal story of undergoing fertility treatment while on tour and reckoning with the fact that she may not be able to have another child. She allows the audience to see her journey in intimate detail, showing doctor’s appointments and scenes from right after her in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments. 

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Four years after the tour, Menzel told People that she and Lohr have moved on from trying to have a child and spend time with their son. “I think going through all that, you’re so exhausted by it that finally, it becomes apparent like, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore and it just wasn’t meant to be,’ and you’re resolved in that,” she says.

Now, Menzel is expanding her work into films. She received acclaim for her performance in Uncut Gems, starring Adam Sandler, and in Disney’s Disenchanted. In May of this year, she launched a clothing line, Encore by Idina.