Lea Michele is picking up the pieces following boyfriend Cory Monteith‘s July 13 death. Since returning to the Glee set on Tuesday, Aug. 6, the 26-year-old actress has been leaning on the Fox series’ cast and crew to help her through it.
On Friday, Aug. 9, the star posted a picture via Twitter of a stunning dinner table — complete with a sand-filled candle votive, sunflowers, a strawberry salad, and a place card, which had her name written in cursive. “Beautiful dinner tonight at @MrRPMurphy’s house…I love him so much…” she captioned the snapshot, adding a heart.
Indeed, the actress and Murphy, 47, have been each other’s support system since Monteith’s tragic July 13 death, when the actor died in his Vancouver hotel room from a lethal mix of heroin and alcohol at the age of 31.
“It’s just a very tragic thing,” Murphy told TV Line in July shortly after the news. “It’s been a very difficult thing for all of us, including Lea, to love someone who is an addict. It’s something all of us have been dealing with for many months. It’s a disease and, unfortunately, the disease flared up.”
Calling Michele a “rock,” Murphy said he was blown away by her strength. “Lea is obviously very grief-stricken but she’s also one of the strongest people I know,” he shared. “She wants people to be better and get back to work. So that’s what we’re going to do.”
As Us Weekly reported in its Aug. 19 issue, the actress is even offering her input to Murphy as he writes the Oct. 10 episode that will address the drug-related death of Monteith’s character, Finn.
“Lea wants it to reflect the truth, to warn people what can happen,” a source explained to Us.
The fifth season of Glee premieres on Fox Sept. 26.