Besides the emotional speech she gave at the Teen Choice Awards, Lea Michele has made few public remarks about her late boyfriend, Glee costar Cory Monteith, who passed away in July from an accidental drug overdose. However, with the Glee tribute to Cory’s character, Finn, airing last night on Fox, Lea is finally opening up about his passing.
Last Tuesday, the actress addressed his death during a Glee panel with costars Matthew Morrison and Jane Lynch, as well as Glee’s creator Ryan Murphy.
“I feel like, for me personally, I’ve lost two people: Cory and Finn,” Michele said. “We had a beautiful memorial for Cory in the auditorium and some of the cast members sang and people spoke about him. It only felt right that we would do the same thing for Finn, so I felt it was very therapeutic.”
People speculated whether Michele would leave the show after Cory’s unexpected death, but she says she’s found comfort in returning to the show. As she explained, “Everyone is asking, ‘Is it hard to do this? Is it hard to be back at work?’ But the truth is, it’s no harder at work than it is in life, so we might as well all be together as a family supporting each other to get through this together.”
In the episode, Michele performs “Make You Feel My Love” for Cory’s character, and her costars were blown away by her touching performance. According to Matthew Morrison, “We knew we had to show up because our leader stepped forward and kind of gave permission to all of us to do it. I don’t think we could have done it without her.”
Though Michele continues to mourn Cory’s death, we hope that she, as well as Cory’s fans, can finally find a little bit of comfort from the closure the Glee tribute provided.