Lea Michele Pays Tribute to Cory Monteith on 9th Anniversary of His Death

Lea Michele paid tribute to her former boyfriend, Cory Monteith, in a sweet yet simple way. Wednesday marked the nine-year anniversary of when Monteith died, and Michele, who was also the actor's co-star on Glee, made sure to honor his memory.

On her Instagram Story, the 35-year-old actress shared a throwback pic of her gazing up at a suited-up Monteith while she held a bouquet of flowers and sported a light blue dress. She captioned the image with just a heart emoji.

The tribute is similar to what she posted last year for the late star. On the eighth anniversary of his death, Michele shared a black-and-white image of him waving to fans and again simply captioned it with a heart emoji.

Monteith played the lovable jock Finn Hudson on Glee and had an on-screen, off-screen relationship with Michele, who played the show's main character, Rachel Berry. On July 13, 2013, fans were stunned when the Canadian actor was found dead in his room at the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. The BC Coroners Service later determined that Monteith died from a mixed drug toxicity, involving heroin and alcohol. He was just 31 years old.

Months after his death, Michele spoke to Elle about her relationship with Monteith.

"From the minute I met Cory, I was like, 'This is the most handsome man I've ever seen in my whole life,'" she said. "One day we just looked at each other and we were like, 'You wanna do this?' We knew."

Michele also spoke to the magazine about Monteith's struggle with substance abuse.

"I can only imagine what it looks like from the outside," the actress said. "It was such a short period of time between when people found out to, you know, July, but there are so many personal aspects of this whole journey that people are not invited to know. We had a full life, and that had lots of different details that will be ours forever, for only us to know."

The anniversary of Monteith's death comes just days after the two-year anniversary of the death of fellow Glee star Naya Rivera. Rivera was found dead after she went missing while boating with her then-4-year-old son, Josey, on Lake Piru in California. She was 35.

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