Heather Morris broke down while talking about her late friend and former Glee co-star, Naya Rivera, during an Instagram Live on Sunday. Rivera drowned on July 8 during a boating outing in California with her 4-year-old son, Josey.
Morris, 33, filmed an emotional video thanking fans for their support in the wake of the tragedy. Captioning the clip, “You’re not alone,” the actress also shared how she has been dealing with her grief.
“I want to thank all the fans for your love and support, and want you to know that we are all here with you, that grief looks different on everybody, and I want you to be gentle and kind to yourself during this time,” she said.
“Something that’s helped me is to write a letter or talk to her and so I hope that helps,” Morris added. “But I really just wanted to connect to you guys and tell you how much I love and appreciate all of you. That’s it … that’s all I’ve got besides my tears.”
Earlier in the post, Morris shared how she had been feeling “really heavy” and experiencing an “aching in my heart to connect with fans.”
Having played Rivera’s character’s love interest in Glee, Morris acknowledged how important the storyline had been to viewers.
“Most of you felt like it was your gateway into your current life,” she said. “Most of you felt like it was an inspiration to become your best self, and I want you to know that was never lost on me. It was never lost on Naya. We both knew how special that was. I think she knew a little bit more than I did. I really felt it a lot later, with all the messages and all the people reaching out and many of the writers also knew that as well. They were basically writing for the fans.”
“I felt a really deep need to connect to all of you right now,” Morris added, tearing up. “Because I just know how important our relationship was to you all and I know a lot of you feel very lost and very far away from what happened, maybe a little bit confused and that’s completely normal.”
