In 2025, the internet’s favorite Lea Michele scandal is her alleged lack of reading abilities — the joke has gone so far that a lot of the comments on the Glee star’s TikTok posts are just strings of emojis. Do I think she can read? Absolutely not (purely based on intuition, zero evidence). I fear the reading rumor is so ludicrous and hilarious that it distracts from this problematic diva’s lengthy list of actual controversies.
You may recall that several of Lea’s former costars came forward with troubling allegations about her in 2020 after she tweeted in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Lea was accused of racism, bullying, and transphobia; she lost a HelloFresh partnership over it, with the company stating it “does not condone racism nor discrimination of any kind.” However, despite her brief cancellation, Lea was able to make a career comeback in 2022 when she was cast as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl on Broadway. Now, she’s set to appear on Jake Shane’s wildly popular podcast, Therapuss.
Just so we don’t forget… Here’s a breakdown of Lea Michele’s controversies, including the racism, bullying, and transphobia allegations.
Lea Michele Controversies Breakdown: Racism, Bullying Allegations
Lea Michele Racism Allegations
In June 2020, Lea hopped on the ~I’m gonna perform Good White Person~ train and shared a tweet with the Black Lives Matter hashtag. Samantha Marie Ware, a Black actress who appeared on Glee, responded to Lea with a viral tweet. “Remember when you made my first television gig a living hell?!?!” Samantha wrote in all caps. “I believe you told everyone that if you had the opportunity, you would ‘s— in my wig!’ amongst other traumatic microaggressions that made me question a career in Hollywood.” Glee stars Alex Newell and Amber Riley notably responded to Samantha’s tweet with supportive GIFs.
Speaking to Variety, Samantha said it was “very evident” from the beginning that Lea didn’t like her. “It was after I did my first performance, that’s when it started – the silent treatment, the stare-downs, the looks, the comments under her breath, the weird passive aggressiveness,” Samantha recalled. She also alleged that Lea threatened to get her fired.
Dabier Snell, a Black actor who appeared in a Glee episode, also responded to Lea’s Black Lives Matter tweet with an accusation of his own. “Girl you wouldn’t let me sit at the table with the other cast members ’cause I ‘didn’t belong there,'” he wrote, adding, “Fuck you Lea.”
In response to the racism allegations, Lea shared a statement on Instagram. “I apologize for my behavior and for any pain which I have caused,” she wrote. “We can all grow and change and I have definitely used these past several months to reflect on my own shortcomings.” Lea claimed to not remember making the comment about Samantha’s hair and added that she’s “never judged others by their background or color of their skin.”
Lea Michele Bullying And Transphobia Allegations
— heather (@HeatherMorrisTV) June 3, 2020
Around the same time, Samantha shared her tweet, others came forward with their own accusations against Lea. Trans model Plastic Martyr told The Sun that Lea made her feel like a “circus freak” when she was transitioning. She recalled a hurtful interaction with the Glee star in the bathroom at the 2010 Emmys.
“She was standing there with her friends, talking shit, being a mean girl, making fun of people’s outfits,” Plastic claimed. “She goes, ‘Excuse me?’ and she looks at her friends, looks at me again, and says, ‘Excuse you, you’re in the woman’s bathroom.'” Plastic noted that she didn’t know Lea personally at the time and was just washing her hands and trying to leave the bathroom.
Elizabeth Aldrich, a former child actress who worked with Michele on Broadway, also came forward to claim: “She demeaned the crew and threatened to have people fired if she was in any way displeased…She was 12. She was terrifying.”
Although Lea’s costar, Heather Morris, didn’t specifically accuse her of “bullying,” she didn’t have a glowing review of the Funny Girl actress either. “Was she unpleasant to work with? Very much so,” Heather tweeted in 2020. “For Lea to treat others with the disrespect that she did for as long as she did, I believe she SHOULD be called out.”
