Lea first met Cory when they were both cast on the hit series Glee back in 2009, and they started dating in 2012. The two remained together until Cory’s death in July 2013, with the star dying of mixed drug toxicity involving heroin and alcohol at age 31.
Lea was 26 years old at the time, and members of the Glee cast and crew previously admitted to struggling with her decision to keep filming after his death, with the show’s creator essentially leaving the decision up to her.
But Lea stood by her decision during a recent appearance on the Therapuss with Jake Shane podcast, where she said of grieving Cory’s death: “Well, I was 26, no one handed me a guide book. It was a fast education on more stuff than I ever could have processed. If we didn’t show up for work, then a lot of people wouldn’t have work to go to, and that was a lot of pressure for me. So, I had to put my stuff aside and just show up so that everybody could continue to work.”
Elsewhere on the podcast, Lea offered some shocking insight into the downside of fame as she detailed how voyeuristic Cory’s death became. Discussing her life before his passing, she said: “Life was very different. I mean, I had a tour bus that would go past my house in West Hollywood, and you would hear it. I’d be in the house and it’d be like: ‘Lea Michele, Rachel Berry on Glee!’ And then it would be like, I would hear: ‘Don’t Rain On My Parade’ playing while I’m sitting in my living room.”
She then remembered: “Also, there was a tour bus that used to drive by my house — my publicist will probably want to cut this — but it was the tour of people that have died, and after everything happened, this bus would come by. It was like, ‘Hollywood Tragedy’ tour bus, and here I was, 26 years old, and this tour bus would go by my house, and every day I would hear, like: ‘These are the details and blah blah blah blah blah,’ and eerie music would be playing from the bus.”
“It was so sad, it was so, so depressing,” Lea concluded. Unsurprisingly, the star also noted that when she moved home, she was sure to stay away from the tourist area of Los Angeles, sharing: “Fast-forward, like, four years later, I bought a house so high up in the canyon. Far, far, like, deep in Pacific Palisades, because I was like: ‘I have to get out of West Hollywood.’”
What do you make of the whole thing? Let me know in the comments below.