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Glee’s Kevin McHale Recalls Starting Lea Michele and Cory Monteith Dating Rumors
Glee alum Kevin McHale revealed he started a rumor that his costars Lea Michele and Cory Monteith were dating before the pair confirmed their romance.
“Our ratings had started to dip a little,” Kevin, 35, recalled during on the Monday, December 18, episode of his and Jenna Ushkowitz’s Glee rewatch podcast, “And That’s What You REALLY Missed.”
As they discussed the show’s season 3 Christmas episode, Kevin explained that they “enjoyed two very solid years of success and really great ratings.” However, the show reached a point when viewership was going down during the third season.
“It was the first time they had started to go down in a significant way,” Kevin – who portrayed Artie Abrams – said. “Because I was the one who was always checking, I was reporting back and we all knew.”
While filming the final performance of the episode, the cast had extra time to sit around between takes. “I don’t know who came up with it, it might’ve been a group thing,” Kevin said. “So I talked to Lea. I don’t know if I talked to Cory, I think we did. And you [Jenna] were part of it.”
“I was like, ‘I’m sitting across the room. What if I pretend to take a picture of Jenna and in the background, the very edge of frame, are Cory and Lea being a little extra snuggly?’” the Boychoir actor told Jenna, 37, who admitted she didn’t remember the story. “I said, ‘I’ll put it up and wait a little bit for people to notice, and then I’ll delete it, like I did something wrong.’ Because the intention was we were gonna get rumors started that Cory and Lea are dating, and people will watch the show.”
Kevin added, “We were all very nervous. Lea was like, ‘Yes, absolutely, let’s do it.’”
He went through with the plan and posted the photo, while his costars all wanted updates. “Everyone’s like, ‘What’s going on? Have people noticed?’ I’m like, ‘No, no one’s noticing. No one’s saying anything,’” Kevin said. “And then at the first reference, one person said something — I deleted it … and then it got picked up and was all over.”
Fans were left in shock by the photo, though Kevin revealed he was equally as surprised when Lea, 37, told him the following January that she and Cory were dating.
“We were at the [SAG Awards] afterparty and Lea sits me down and is like, ‘Did you know? We had actually started dating then.’ Nobody knew!” Kevin said. “Of course, everybody found shortly thereafter. But she’s like, ‘We started, like, dating that week again.’”
Jenna added that they “didn’t know at that point,” while the rest of the cast didn’t find out about the romance for another two months.
Lea and Cory dated from late 2011 until his death at the age 31 in July 2013 following an accidental drug overdose. The New Year’s Eve actress has since found love with Zandy Reich, whom she married in 2019. The couple shares son Ever, 3.
