Lea Michele, Cory Monteith: Lea Michele Opens Up About Moving On From Late Former Boyfriend Cory Monteith

It’s been a little over two years since Lea Michele’s boyfriend and co-star Cory Monteith died of a drug overdose. Since then, she’s helped fans mourn the loss of Monteith, and has transitioned in her career as a solo recording artist and author, and of course she’s said goodbye to Glee and has moved on to Ryan Murphy’s Scream Queens.

Now, Lea Michele is talking about what it felt like to move on from her love Cory Monteith, who she had to publicly mourn in real life and on screen as her character Rachel Berry. Since Monteith’s death, Lea has found love again in current boyfriend Matthew Paetz. She has been dating the love guru-turned-model since April of 2014. The pair met on the set of her music video “On My Way,” and were seen out and about as the months passed on. At one point the two were very PDA with each other while on vacation in Italy.

Despite finding love, Lea hasn’t been open to talking about Paetz publicly, probably due to the ridicule she would face from fans who are still holding on to her very public relationship with Cory Monteith.

Michele opened up to FLARE magazine about her decision in starting a relationship.

“I wanted to make sure that I was okay with me, feeling strong and feeling happy on my own.”

She continued to tell the magazine about the steps she took to opening herself up to love again. As stated, it was all about being happy on her own and some self reflection as well.

“I didn’t want anybody to fill any holes for me – that sounds sexual! I wanted to make sure that I was a whole person again and that no one was coming into my life to put me back together.”

Michele continued, “I needed to do that on my own. I worked very, very hard and I got back to that place where I was genuinely happy and strong and ready to live again and see the world, and you know, bring in more beautiful experiences. And that’s when someone miraculously came into my life.”

While Lea has shared some photos of she and Paetz, she hasn’t really highlighted him in her life until recently. Michele took a big step publicly when she shared an Instagram photo in May in honor of his birthday. At the time she captioned the photo with, “Matthew, thank you for bringing such happiness into my life. For making me smile again and bringing such a bright joy into my every day.”

Although Lea has moved on that doesn’t mean she’s forgotten her former boyfriend Cory Monteith. Since Monteith’s passing, she has celebrated his birthday and has honored him on the anniversary of his death with sweet captions and rare photos.

[Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images]