Lea Michele reveals how she dealt with the death of her boyfriend Cory Monteith

Lea and Cory met  whilst shooting the first season of Glee as  the shows love interests and main characters in 2009. 

By April 2012, Lea and Cory’s romance was in full swing, appearing on red carpets as an item and featuring on each other’s social media platforms over the course of that year. However, while the two were going strong in their relationship, Cory was privately struggling with his mental health.

In late March 2013, Cory entered a rehab facility to seek treatment for substance addiction

Less than a month later on April 26, Cory completed his treatment and he subsequently made a number of public appearances, sounding healthy and upbeat. However a few months later he was announced dead by overdose

Much to fans’ surprise, production on Season 5 picked back up less than a month after his death. It included Cory’s tribute episode, titled “The Quarterback” which aired on Oct. 10.

Lea made her first appearance as Rachel in the latter half of the episode, performing an emotional rendition of “Make You Feel My Love” by Bob Dylan.

Reflecting on this song choice today, Lea gave some rare insight into the filming of “The Quarterback” and revealed that Ryan had let her decide what to sing in Cory’s honor.

“How can I pick a song that says everything, you know?” Lea during a live performance in Washington, DC, this week.

Lea shared that she had been grateful to have been given the opportunity to choose what to sing, adding that it was important for the tribute to feel true to her, not only as a character on the show, but in real life, too.

Lea went on to say that filming the tribute scene was “wild and hard,” but that singing “Make You Feel My Love” in Cory’s honor helped her heal alongside her castmates.

Concluding the heartfelt moment, Lea told the audience that “The Quarterback” is the only episode of Glee she has never watched back.

“I think if I don't watch it, it just kind of feels like Finn is still there,” she said. “So this [song] is very special.”

On the ninth anniversary of Cory’s death earlier this month, Lea paid tribute to him on Instagram with a sweet photograph of the two of them. She captioned the image with a red heart.