Lea Michele's First Interview After Cory Monteith's Death Devastates: "I've Lost Two People"

As we get closer and closer to tomorrow's tribute episode to Cory Monteith, it becomes harder and harder to deny that for many of us, the pain of losing Glee's resident "Frankenteen" is still ever present.

But no one understands that better than the woman who not only loved him off-screen, but who shared 4 seasons of love with fans everywhere on-screen. For the first time since his passing, Lea Michele is speaking out on her grief over losing not only her boyfriend Cory, but also the character of Finn.

In an interview released on the eve of the tribute episode, Lea shared why it was indeed necessary to shoot the episode, explaining:

“For me personally, I’ve lost two people: Cory and Finn. 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."

In addition, Lea shared that being with her "family," that is to say her TV co-workers, is helping to ease some of the immense pain that she feels everyday. In fact, being at work has been in-onto itself therapeutic:

“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.”

Sounds about right to us…

And finally, Lea was asked about her best memories of Cory and how she will hold onto him in her heart. Her answer, while seemingly sad, is also terrible beautiful and heartwarming, knowing that they shared the kind of love that will stay with her for a long time:

“I woke up every single day feeling like I was in some sort of spell or something, that I was lucky enough to have him in my life. There was no greater man than Cory, so for the time we spent together, I consider myself very lucky.”

Such a true example of grace during grief.

Lea was incredibly lucky, as was Cory. The two shared a love that not only impacted their own lives, but the culture of television.

Though all seven boxes of Kleenex will be used by the end of tomorrow night, we'll feel lucky too, knowing we got to experience Finchel.

[Image via FOX.]

Tags: cory monteith, death, glee, lea michele, love line, sad sad