Lea Michele Pays Heartfelt Tribute To Late Boyfriend Cory Monteith 9 Years After His Death

Some love truly never dies.

Looking at how Lea Michele recalls and celebrates Cory Monteith, it is clear how much she sincerely bonded with her "Glee" co-star before his death.

The pair began dating sometime after meeting on the set of the successful show and remained together until Monteith died of a heroin overdose in 2013. Michele has highlighted their relationship every year on the anniversary of his passing, whether she writes a touching statement or posts a nice flashback photo, ensuring that the day does not pass without recognizing him.

Michele continued her tradition this year, as she paid a heartfelt homage to her ex-boyfriend on her social media account, uploading a sweet flashback photo of them to once again mark the anniversary of his passing.

On July 13, the day of the actor's demise, Michele shared a throwback photo on her Instagram Story of the two staring into each other eyes with love, captioning a red heart on the post. In the picture, Monteith was dressed in a black suit with a white shirt and blue striped tie, while Michelle wore a light blue gown and was holding a coat plus a bunch of flowers on her arm.

The throwback photo appeared to have been taken during the filming of an episode of "Glee." Though their onscreen characters, Rachel Berry and Finn Hudson, had a topsy-turvy romance throughout the show, off-screen, the pair were as thick thieves as Michelle's yearly honor of the actor further confirms.

Apart from her annual memorial act, the former child actress also has two tattoos of her late beau, a more physical reminder of their former relationship. She inked his character's jersey number, 5, on her side in April 2016 and wrote "Finn" on her lower back on an undisclosed date.

Michele highlighted the close connection she had with her former boyfriend just months before his death. In an interview with Marie Claire, the actress gushed about their bond, hyping Monteith's knack for making her feel like she can do the impossible.

"No one knows me better than Cory," she told the publication. "Feeling like you have that net underneath you allows you to jump higher and go farther. He makes me feel like I can do anything. I feel really, really settled and happy. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world."

In 2014, Michele also told Glamour UK about their plans to continue their relationship into marriage, bear children, and grow old in love.

"We talked about a lot of things," she said. (via Us Weekly) "We talked about children and what we would look like when we grew old. We talked about where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do. We were done. We were it."

All those sweet plans were dashed when the "The Monte Carlo" star was found dead in a hotel in Vancouver, Canada, from an overdose of heroin and alcohol. Months before his demise, he had spent some time in a rehab facility, one of his numerous attempts to overcome his addiction.

For Michele, Monteith dying of drug overdose did not change how she felt about him. After his death, she confessed in an interview that she only had happy memories of her former lover.

"I only have happy memories of Cory. He was not his addiction – unfortunately, it won," she at the time as per US Weekly. "But that wasn't who he was. Cory made me feel like a queen every day. From the minute he said, 'I'm your boyfriend,' I loved every day, and I thank him for being the best boyfriend and making me feel so beautiful."

After Monteith's passing, Michele eventually found love in the arms of businessman Zandy Reich. The actress announced their engagement on April 28, 2018, and the pair tied the knot on March 9, 2019, in Napa,

California. A year later, the "Scream Queens" alum welcomed their first child, Ever Leo, on August 20, 2020.

As for her acting career, Michele confirmed earlier in the week she had landed a role in Broadway's "Funny Girl" revival as Fanny Brice, marking her return to the Great White Way since her feature in 2006's "Spring Awakening."

Michele also doubles as a singer, signing on to Columbia records in 2012. She dropped her debut single, "Cannonball," in 2013, followed by her debut studio album, "Louder," which debuted at number 4 on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States. Since then, Michele has dropped two more studio albums, "Places" and "Christmas in the City."