Love never dies.
Lea Michele took a moment on Tuesday to honor her late boyfriend and Glee co-star Cory Monteith on the eighth anniversary of his death.
Posting a black-and-white photograph of the singer on stage during a concert, she left the simplest of captions: a red heart emoji. See the special Instagram Story tribute (below).
As fans will recall, the 34-year-old was dating the actor (who also played her love interest onscreen on the Fox series) when he died of a drug overdose in 2013. His body was found in a Vancouver hotel room with traces of morphine, codeine, and heroin present.
Heart-wrenchingly, Lea was the one who broke the news to his mother in a phone call no one wants to receive. The unexpected loss rattled TV lovers everywhere, and the show even captured that emotion in a special episode dedicated to the passing of Finn titled The Quarterback.
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Co-star Jenna Ushkowitz also honored Cory by sharing a silly photo of the performer while adding a hand-drawn heart to her own IG Story”
This devastating anniversary comes just days after the cast was reeling over the first anniversary of the passing of Naya Rivera, who drowned last year while saving her son in a boating accident on Lake Piru in California.
Many cast members took a moment to reflect on her loss on their social media feeds, with an especially heartfelt post uploaded by Heather Morris, who played Naya’s love interest on the musical dramedy. At the time, Lea shared a similar black-and-white picture of the actress to her Story — including a dove emoji rather than a heart.
It was a particularly touching message considering the stars left things on a very rocky note following a long and public feud. The Scream Queens alum hasn’t fully made amends with her fellow Gleeks though — she was noticeably left out of a cast reunion over the weekend. Instead, Michele and Jonathan Groff took a vacation of their own, along with her husband Zandy Reich and their son Ever.
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She captioned a selfie with the Frozen star on a beach, writing:
“Best weekend with my best friend.”
Super cute pics!! (Though the timing of the upload and mini-reunion was definitely not coincidental considering Chord Overstreet had dropped his Glee cast group selfie days before.)
We can’t imagine how painful these last few days must have been grieving the loss of two friends. Sending love to Cory’s loved ones! No matter how many years pass, we know the pain never goes away… Thoughts, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments (below).
[Image via FayesVision/Joseph Marzullo/WENN]