Lea Michele landed the role of a lifetime when she was cast in the FOX musical-comedy Glee in 2009, where she played Rachel Berry for a whopping six seasons. The Ryan Murphy-created show wasn’t just a huge success on TV but also on the Billboard Hot 100.

Songs performed by the likes of Lea and her fellow cast were usually released as singles, with the show’s rendition of Journey’s smash hit Don’t Stop Believin’ entering the Top 20 in countries such as the United Kingdom and the U.S., where it even went on to outperform the original.

Needless to say, Glee was quite literally the starting point of something great for Lea, who had been trying to make it big in Hollywood for years prior.

Unfortunately, though, things didn’t appear to go quite as planned for the mother-of-one after former cast members had deemed her difficult to work with.

She quickly developed a reputation for having an alleged diva attitude on set, which appeared to have been the driving force behind Lea’s career downfall. Here’s the lowdown…

Was Lea Michele A Diva On Set?

In the show’s second season, there were rumors circulating that Lea was hard to work with because after Glee had exploded and became a TV phenomenon, Lea apparently allowed the fame to get to her head.

By 2014, a year before the show entered its final season, TMZ reported that Lea’s co-star, the late Naya Rivera, had been left furious after the cast and crew were left to wait for the 35-year-old while she dealt with “personal matters.”

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The crew was ready to shoot a particular scene, but due to Lea’s supposed personal affairs, she left everyone waiting for an undisclosed time.

Apparently, the situation got confrontational when the Cannonball singer finally returned. There was some commotion between the two before Lea was said to have left production for the day.

A rep for Lea, according to The Mirror, begged to differ, saying it was actually Naya who stormed off and disappeared following the incident.

In May 2021, co-star Heather Morris had echoed similar words about Lea’s diva attitude as she further mentioned that many people felt “scared” to tell executives about Lea’s alleged bad behavior.

Allegations Surrounding Lea Michele Were Not Good

In June 2020, just one month after George Floyd’s death, Lea had taken to her social media to pay tribute to the African-American man, who died at the hands of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

After seeing what many considered to be a heartfelt post, Samantha Ware, who played Jane Hayward on the final season of Glee, came forward and called Lea out for her alleged racist attitude on set.

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“LMAO REMEMBER WHEN YOU MADE MY FIRST TELEVISON GIG A LIVING HELL?!?! CAUSE ILL NEVER FORGET,” the actress wrote on Twitter.

“I BELIEVE YOU TOLD EVERYONE THAT IF YOU HAD THE OPPORTUNITY YOU WOULD “SH!* IN MY WIG!” AMONGST OTHER TRAUMATIC MICROAGRESSIONS THAT MADE ME QUESTION A CAREER IN HOLLYWOOD…”

Another Twitter user by the name @angelasauceda came forward that same week claiming she also had a horrible experience working with the brunette.

“Been telling people this for years,” she said.

“I worked with her once. She literally would only speak to me through her assistant. Just not addressing my presence. She was two feet away. Corey was kind and incredibly lovely to work with.”

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This led to the user @dearbina to follow up, recalling her dad’s miserable time working as a crew member on Glee because of Lea’s antics.

“Lea michele is not nice. My dad worked crew on that show & she was the first person in line for craft services,” she wrote.

“She tasted the soup, made a face, spit it back DIRECTLY INTO THE POT & said it was disgusting & walked away while the whole crew was waiting behind her to eat….”

Lea Michele Went Off The Map

Lea found herself losing a string of endorsement deals after it was alleged she had expressed racist behavior on the set of Glee.

This, on top of being branded a diva, had incredibly hurt her brand — and her earnings, with meal-kit firm Hello Fresh later cutting ties with her too.

Taking to Instagram to apologize for any wrongdoings caused in the presence of others, she expressed: "I apologize for my behavior and for any pain which I have caused.”

"We can all grow and change and I have definitely used these past several months to reflect on my own shortcomings.”

Michelle further acknowledged that she “clearly acted in ways which hurt other people.”

Unfortunately, though, her career hasn’t been able to bounce back ever since. Lea has a net worth of $14 million and is married to businessman Zandy Reich. In addition, she hasn't take on roles since 2019, according to IMDb, opting to go off the map. She has instead decided to travel while becoming a proud mom.

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