Lea Michele Claims ‘I Will Be Better’ After Backlash Over Claims Of Harassment By ‘Glee’ Star Samantha Ware
Actress Lea Michele has apologized following backlash regarding her alleged past harassment of former Glee co-star Samantha Ware. The actress and singer took to Instagram and claimed “I will be better” in a lengthy statement where she expressed her regret over what reportedly transpired on the set of the hit Fox show. She also asked for forgiveness for her former actions. Samantha Ware appeared on Glee in 2015 during Season 6 as a recurring character named Jane Hayward.
In her statement, Lea said she did not recall making the remark Samantha found offensive. She stated that what mattered was that she clearly acted in ways that hurt other people. Lea claimed that one of the most important lessons that can be learned from these past several weeks was to take time to listen and learn about other people’s perspectives and think about anything one can do to address injustices.
The lengthy missive, which ran three Instagram photo slides in length, ended with the actress’s claim that as a mother-to-be, she needed to “keep working to better myself and take responsibility for my actions so that I can be a real role model for my child…I listened to these criticisms and I am learning and while I am very sorry, I will be better in the future from this experience.”
The Instagram statement came on the heels of Samantha’s retweet of a statement Lea initially made in support of the Black Lives Matter movement via Twitter on May 29. In her own statement, written in all caps, Samantha responded to the tweet and accused the actress of threats to “sh*t” in her wig on the set. She also alleged that Lea traumatized her on the set of the popular series which depicted the lives of a group of misfit students who found their forever friends in the community of the school’s glee club. Samantha’s retweet was published on June 1.
Several of Lea’s former Glee co-stars — including Alex Newell and Amber Patrice Riley — posted their own feelings on the social media site regarding Samantha’s tweet. Alex stated that no one had anything to gain by lying six years after their reported experience. Amber shared several GIF’s on Twitter that appeared to express her feelings, including one of her looking to the side and drinking a cup of tea.
On the heels of Samantha’s allegations, Lea was reportedly terminated from her partnership with the popular food delivery service Hello Fresh. The company released a statement via Twitter on June 2 which stated they took the claims of racism against Lea very seriously and had ended their partnership with her. The actress had previously shared several photos of herself with the food delivery boxes on her Instagram feed.
