Lea Michele has issued an apology after her former Glee co-star Samantha Ware accused her of making her time on the show a “living hell”.
Earlier this week, Lea was the subject of a tweet from Samantha, which later garnered support from a number of Glee stars, including Amber Riley, Dabier Snell and Willam Belli.
After seeing a tweet from Lea in support of Black Lives Matter, Samantha accused her of “traumatic microaggressions” that made her “question a career in Hollywood” when they worked together in 2015.
Lea has now spoken out on the matter, writing on Instagram: “One of the most important lessons of the last few weeks is that we need to take the time to listen and learn about other people’s perspectives and any role we have played or anything we can do to help address injustices they face.
“When I tweeted the other day, it was meant to be a show of support for our friends and neighbours and communities of colour during this really difficult time. But the responses I received to what I posted have made me also focus on how my own behaviour towards fellow cast members was perceived by them.
“While I don’t remember ever making this specific statement and I have never judged others by their background or colour of their skin, that’s not really the point, what matters is that I clearly acted in ways which hurt other people.”
She continued: “Whether it was my privileged position and perspective that caused me to be perceived as insensitive or inappropriate at times or whether it was just my immaturity and me just being unnecessarily difficult, I apologise for my behavior and for any pain which I have caused.”
“We all can grow and change and I have definitely used these past several months to reflect on my own shortcomings.”
Pointing out that she is “a couple of months from becoming a mother”, Lea added: “I know I need to keep working to better myself and take responsibility for my actions, so that I can be a real role model for my child and so I can pass along my lessons and mistakes, so that they can learn from me.
“I listened to these criticisms and I am learning and while I am very sorry, I will be better in the future from this experience.”
It was recently revealed that food company HelloFresh had ended their professional relationship with Lea, off the back of Samantha’s tweet.
Samantha Ware had a recurring role as Jane Hayward in the sixth season of Glee in 2015, appearing in 11 episodes. The musical teen drama was her first TV role, before going on to appear in What/If, Chicago Med and God Friended Me.