Lea Michele is coming off of a rough few weeks in the public eye. She was just approaching the end of her pregnancy when she got called out for being mean-spirited on the set by her former Glee co-star Samantha Ware. After apologizing, Michele laid low for a while as other Glee co-stars shared their thoughts on the matter, but now she’s made her return to Instagram, dipping her toes in the social media water to check out the temperature.
Early in July, Lea Michele made an inconspicuous return to Instagram with a story showing her heavily pregnant and out for a hike. Since then, according to outlets like Page Six, Lea Michele has been spotted on walks with her husband Zandy Reich and her mom Edith Thomasina this week. She's always been big on hiking, so the post isn't a big surprise, but it does lead to questions surrounding controversies and when it's OK to stop being apologetic and start doing your own thing online again. It's a weird world we live in.
Lea Michele seemingly laid low for a while after Samantha Ware made claims the Glee actress made the set intolerable, calling Michele’s actions “traumatic microagressions.” Some of the other individuals who worked on Glee, including Amber Riley and Heather Morris, also spoke out about Michele’s alleged behavior on the set of the Ryan Murphy show. Others who worked with Lea Michele noted they did not have the same sort of experiences with the actress while filming together.
The backlash did prompt Lea Michele to respond on Instagram back in June. She noted at the time that she was sorry for her “shortcomings” and would be taking the time to reflect on “any pain” her actions on Glee may have caused, though she said any bad behavior or feelings she hurt were not due to anyone’s skin color or background on the series.
Then she laid low for weeks, only emerging with the Instagram Stories post at the beginning of the current month. She still has not been nearly as active with stationary posts on any of her social media channels as she had been throughout her pregnancy previously and just in general through her career. She has not shared anything on Twitter, either, since the start of June.
Lea Michele has been fairly coy about the due date of her baby. Though she’s fine sharing pregnancy posts of herself, she’s fairly private about a lot of the details, though there has been speculation the 33-year-old actress may be due in the fall. Initially, Michele announced her pregnancy in an April 27th post and if she was around 12 weeks at that time, that would mean her due date is sometime in the fall, perhaps October or November. So, if things had shook out differently, she'd probably still be sharing more of her pregnancy journey right now.
While she waits to become a first time mom, she should have plenty of time to figure out what happened here and how to move forward. In the wake of the Glee set accusations, Lea Michele also lost her partnership with HelloFresh as that brand sought to take the former accusations “very seriously.” Along with being down her brand partnership, the actress has also been taking a break from acting and doesn’t have any current projects on the docket right now either, also presumably due to her current pregnancy. It is worth pointing out acting has not been as large of a priority for Lea Michele in recent years as she has focused on philanthropy and producing music, though she did act in The Mayor in 2017.
