Pregnant Lea Michele quits Twitter after Glee co-star Naya Rivera's disappearance prompts relentless backlash
'Glee' star Lea Michele has deleted her Twitter profile after being relentlessly attacked by vicious comments online after her former costar Naya Rivera went missing at Lake Piru, California on July 8, and is currently presumed to be dead. The 33-year-old actress, who is pregnant was criticized for not commenting or offering her prayers on the fact that Rivera had disappeared. Many even took it as an opportunity to acknowledge her previous falling out with her co-star.
In her 2016 memoir, 'Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes and Growing Up,' Rivera, who played Santana Lopez opposite Michele's Rachel Berry, opened up about the feud between them and the difficult working relationship that followed while shooting the show. "We are both strong willed and competitive – not just with each other but with everyone – and that's not a good mixture," she wrote. "As Santana moved from a background character to one with bigger plot lines and more screen time. I think Rachel – erm, I mean Lea – didn't like sharing the spotlight. If I'd complained about anyone or anything, she'd assumed I was bitching about her. Soon, she started to ignore me, and eventually, it got to the point where she didn't say a word to me for all of season 6."
Michele's name started trending on Twitter shortly after Rivera went missing, leaving behind her four-year-old son, who was found alone on a rented boat on the lake. Some of them also started blaming her costar Michele for Rivera's disappearance although the authorities are yet to imply any foul play into the incident. "It should've been Lea Michele," one person tweeted, while another said, "Lea Michele lucky she pregnant so imma be respectful and keep my opinions to myself but f**k that racist b***h and I hope that Naya Rivera is ok and Leah will have her day trust that." A third one wrote, "I hope Lea Michele gets questioned."
Despite the cruel comments by the social media users, the relationship between Rivera and Michele seemed to have healed considerably in the past few years as the former was one of the first to congratulate the latter on her pregnancy announcement, writing on Instagram: 'Aww congrats! I love this. You're going to be a great mommy!" Some of the fans realized that Michele's decision to quit Twitter was the right one.
"I don’t blame Lea Michele for deactivating her twitter account, the way people harassed her was insane. I think she should deactivate comments on instagram too," one user said, while another one commented, "People going after Naya Rivera’s Glee cast for not speaking out needs to stop. Especially the harassment of Lea Michele, a woman who is about to give birth. Just because they’re not making public statements doesn’t mean they don’t care." Meanwhile, a third stated: "I do not support lea michele but she’s a pregnant woman whose friend is missing... [S]he doesn’t deserve this bullying and y’all are proving that you don’t love naya if you spend your time bullying lea or other people, that’s not what naya needs right now. Spread positivity not hate."