Lea Michele Talks Cory Monteith on 'Ellen,' Admits Actor's Death Still 'Very Hard' (VIDEO)
Lea Michele opened up about her grief over the death of her late boyfriend, Cory Monteith, during a recent appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."
The "Glee" actress, 27, appeared relaxed but emotionally fragile as she spoke about her tragic loss. Monteith, who played Finn Hudson alongside Michele on the popular TV series, died from mixed drug toxicity on July 13 – he was 31.
"I really feel like I'm still trying to figure out all of this," a soft spoken Michele told Ellen. "It's been only a few months, but my mom has experienced a lot of loss in her life and she told me at one point, she said, there is an empowerment that comes with grief, at some point you find it."
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Michele, who plays Rachel Berry on the musical TV series, began dating her co-star in early 2012 and she is still coming to terms with his untimely death.
"It's very hard but you will find it and I think at a certain point you can choose to sort of fall from this or you can choose to rise," she said.
"And that's what I'm just trying to do my best for him because I know that that's what he would have wanted," she continued. "And to just do my best and to you know, hopefully make something positive for where I go in the rest of my life."
The "Cannonball" singer expressed gratitude to actress Kate Hudson, who gave up her home for Michele and her family shortly after Monteith's passing.
"...To have that time at her home to just really be in private with this for a moment before getting back to work and before going home - I'm just so thankful to her," she said.
Michele revealed that one of her "favorite" memories of Monteith, who battled with addiction for more than a decade, was when the actor appeared on the "Ellen" show. During his interview, Monteith had revealed that he and Michele were an item.
"It's one of my favorite memories. I remember when he came home that night he kind of puffed out his chest and he was like, 'I talked about you on Ellen today,'" Michele recounted.
"I was so happy. He's such a private person and I literally lived everyday of my life feeling like the luckiest girl in the whole world," she said. "I just thought he was the greatest man and so at that moment, that memory, it means so much to me."
