Lea Michele's First Interview Since Losing Cory Monteith Will Break Your Heart

Ahead of the Cory Monteith tribute episode of Glee being shown in the US this week, the late star's girlfriend has given her first interview. And it's seriously emotional...

Lea Michele has bravely given her very first interview since losing her co-star and boyfriend Cory Monteith to a heroin overdose in July.

The actress spoke to TV Week Australia ahead of the Cory Monteith tribute episode, which airs in the US this week. It was only a matter of time before Lea opened up about her heartbreak, but we're still totally in awe of the star and her ability to power through her grief and chat so openly and fondly about Cory.

She said: 'I feel like, for me personally, I’ve lost two people: Cory and Finn.'

That said, Lea adds that there hasn't come a point where she felt she needed turn her back on the hit show.

She added: 'Everyone is asking, "Is it hard to do this? Is it hard to be back at work?" But the truth is, it’s no harder at work than it is in life – so we might as well all be together as a family supporting each other to get through this together.'

Aaaaand, we're off. Sob.

Glee producer Ryan Murphy decided to dedicate episode three of the fifth season to Cory, and the hour-long tribute - titled The Quarterback will deal with his character Finn's death. Early stills from the episode show Cory's on-screen classmates decorating his school locker with flowers, posters and tributes. It's set to be a tearjerker.

So how did they overcome their emotions? Lea says: 'We had a beautiful memorial for Cory in the auditorium and some of the cast members sang and people spoke about him. It only felt right that we would do the same thing for Finn, so I felt it was very therapeutic.

'I haven’t seen it yet, but we did it because it was something we all needed to do together.'

This week, Lea's co-star Matthew Morrison, (who plays teacher and Glee club coordinator Will Schuster) told TV Week: 'She had one of the first songs we filmed for the [tribute] episode, and she did it so beautifully. And after, she said something like, "It can’t be harder for anyone else than it was for me."' So, we knew we had to show up because our leader stepped forward and kind of gave permission to all of us to do it. I don’t think we could have done it without her.'

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