As the voice behind Frozen's Elsa, Idina Menzel's formidable vocals have echoed around the globe in the Disney film's mega hit Let It Go.

But the 43-year-old actress says she hasn't always been proud of her incredible voice because growing up she didn't want to seem different.

Much like her cartoon incarnation, who is forced to keep her freezing powers under wraps, Menzel spent her teenage years hiding her ability from friends.

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Idina Menzel suppressed the formidable vocals that made Disney's mega hit, Let It Go, a worldwide success

Menzel is the voice behind Frozen's heroine Elsa, the princess who must hide her ice-making magical powers

'I didn't want to stand out. I didn't want other girls to be envious of me - or not like me,' Menzel said in a recent interview in The Telegraph's Stella Magazine. 'So, yes, I would hide that.'

As well as her powerful vocals, Menzel felt forced to mask her strong personality when she broke into acting.

'I was afraid of being too big and too loud,' she said. 'So I went inward. But I've come back round in my 40s to not being ashamed of being bawdy and a maybe a little bit rough around the edges.'

Menzel got her first break in the original New York production of Rent in 1996 and has been a stage star for the past two decades.

In 2004 she won a Tony award for playing the green-skinned witch Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway.

Left: Menzel sings Let It Go at the 2014 Oscar ceremony; right: In happier times with ex-husband Taye Diggs

Then last year she became the voice of Elsa in the Disney hit Frozen, the most successful animated film of all time - partly, no doubt, due to its soaring soundtrack.

The film's central anthem, Let It Go, captured the imagination of children and adults alike and become a worldwide hit. It then won best song at this year's Oscars, which Menzel performed live.

'I didn't want to stand out. I didn't want other girls to be envious of me - or not like me Idina Menzel

Menzel, who grew up in a Jewish family in New York's Long Island, says she was overwhelmed by the success of the film.

While amid the whirlwind of Frozen, she faced painful drama in her personal life with the recent split from her husband of ten years, the actor Taye Diggs.

The pair have a five-year-old son, Walker.

The divorce has been hard and Menzel admits to being torn as a working mother, saying, 'I always feel guilty'.

She also laments often missing Walker's bedtime thanks to her current stage role in If/Then, a Broadway show written specially for her.

Ironically her own parents split when she was 15, prompting the actress to pledge never to divorce.

And she confesses to feeling 'ashamed' that her marriage broke down but is committed to co-parenting with her ex.

Currently on the agenda for Menzel is her Christmas album, Christmas Wishes.

The record, which includes festive classics like Christmas Wishes, Silent Night and Baby It's Cold outside (a duet with Michael Bublé), is out now.