Dianna Agron once played love interest to Cory Monteith on Glee, but after the death of the 31-year-old actor Agron said her heart aches for his real-life girlfriend and fellow Glee star Lea Michele.
Monteith was found dead this weekend in a Vancouver hotel room, with an autopsy finding his cause of death was a fatal mixture of alcohol and heroin .
After Monteith’s death, Dianna Agron said she is devastated but remembering her co-star fondly.
“I have never lost a friend. In this difficult time, I am leaning on all of the wonderful memories we shared with Cory, how many ways he was able to make us smile,” she said in a statement to Us Weekly . “ Glee was a gift to all of us. It gave us a family in this industry.”
On the show, Agron played Quinn Fabray, cheerleader and love interest to Monteith’s character, Finn Hudson. Quinn graduated in Season 3, but continued to make appearances on the show.
In her statement, Dianna Agron extended her condolences to Monteith’s family and to her friend Lea Michele.
“My heart goes out to his family, to Lea, to everyone that is struggling with the loss of our friend,” Agron said. “We will miss you Cory. We will always carry a piece of you with us.”
The case of Glee formed a special bond together, Agron noted, one that makes the death especially difficult.
“We really cut our teeth and grew up on this show. In playing underdogs, we learned that we had dug into the hearts of our viewers and that we could stay there,” she said. “Cory is so deserving of that place in everyone’s hearts. He was one of the most generous and kind people that I have ever met. He had a smart, curious mind, he was an enormous talent. He was loving to not only me but my family.”
Cory Monteith was open about his struggles with addiction and left Glee for the final two episodes this year to go to rehab. Producers have not yet said how Dianna Agron and the rest of the cast will adjust to his death or how the show’s plot will reflect the tragedy.
