Lea Michele pays tribute to Cory Monteith on the 10-year anniversary of his death: 'I miss you big guy'

Lea Michele is paying tribute to her Glee costar and former partner Cory Monteith on the 10-year anniversary of his death.

On Tuesday, the actress shared on Instagram a black-and-white snapshot of her and Monteith smiling while cuddled close together. "Hey you. 10 years," she captioned the photo. "It feels like only yesterday that you were here and yet a million years ago all at the same time. I hold all of our memories in my heart where they will stay safe and never forgotten."

Michele and Monteith starred as glee club members Rachel Berry and Finn Hudson, respectively, on the beloved Fox series. Offscreen, the pair dated from 2012 until Monteith died from a combination of drug and alcohol toxicity at 31 the following year.

"We miss you every day and will never forget the light you to brought to us all. I miss you big guy. I hope you found Taylor up there and are playing the drums together," she concluded, seemingly a reference to late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who died unexpectedly while on tour in 2022.

In the years since his death, Michele and her fellow Glee castmates have taken to social media to remember Monteith by sharing photos and memories of their time together. Michele also has multiple tattoos in honor of Monteith, including one of the number five, which was the number on Finn's football jersey.

Christopher Polk/Getty Images Lea Michele and Cory Monteith

Last November, Glee creator Ryan Murphy expressed his regret about continuing the series after Monteith's death on an episode of the And That's What You REALLY Missed podcast with stars Jenna Ushkowitz and Kevin McHale. The show paid tribute to Monteith in a season 5 episode titled "The Quarterback" before returning for its sixth and final season in 2015.

"I would be like, 'that's the end,'" Murphy said. "Because you can't really recover from something like that." He continued, "It wasn't, like, a normal death where someone is sick, and you can see them. It happened so quickly with no warning."

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content:

• Glee's Kevin McHale says Naya Rivera and Jenna Ushkowitz staged an 'intervention' for him over steroid use

• Cory Monteith's Glee costars wish they'd praised his acting more

• Kevin McHale slams The Price of Glee docuseries, denies Glee cast involvement