Lea Michele’s been fairly quiet on social media following Samantha Ware’s accusations about her experience with Michele on the set of Glee. This had set off a chain reaction of comments from the cast about the actress, which led to her quitting Twitter. However, Michele has returned to using her Instagram account somewhat and this week did pay tribute to Naya Rivera and Cory Monteith via the social media platform.
Lea Michele didn’t share a lot of words about Naya Rivera following the actress’ accidental drowning at Lake Piru. However, she did share some somber black and white photos of both Rivera and Cory Monteith, a Glee actor whom she had been dating around the time of his death, which occurred after an alcohol and heroin overdose in 2013.
The Instagram Stories post including both Naya Rivera and Cory Monteith likely didn’t simply happen because they both were Glee cast members who were taken from us too soon. One could take the extra step to surmise she shared images of both because of the July 13 connection between Rivera and Monteith.
Corey Monteith died on July 13, 2013 at the age of 31. At the time, he had been in and out of rehab and had been open about his troubles with drugs. Lea Michele and Monteith had dated and were close. His mother, Ann McGregor even previously explained that it was Michele who broke the news of her son’s death to her before the police had made it out.
While Naya Rivera went missing on July 8, her body wasn’t found until days later, on July 13 – the same day Cory Monteith had died years earlier. She was 33 at the time of her death, just a couple of years older than her co-star was when he tragically passed. Clearly that has to bring up a lot of feelings with all of the Glee cast, including Lea Michele.
Many other members of Glee whose lives were touched by Naya Rivera have also paid tribute to the actress, whose last act was reported to be saving her young son before she succumbed to the water. Kevin McHale also touched on the Monteith connection on Instagram, noting he was with Rivera when they learned the news of their co-star passing years ago.
Kevin McHale also believes the date Naya Rivera’s body was found is no coincidence, noting that things tend to happen for a reason. He said:
All in all it’s been a tough week, tough for the Glee cast, tough for fans around the world who loved Naya Rivera and most tough for Rivera’s family, who had to watch along with the rest of the world as this story unfolded. Our thoughts go out to everyone who is grieving at this time.
