Heather Morris claims the 'Glee' cast were "scared" to speak up about Lea Michele's behaviour on set.
Heather Morris
The 34-year-old star admitted she and her former co-stars were subjected to "so much shade" for not speaking out after Samantha Ware spoke up last year and claimed Lea made her life a "living hell" when she appeared on the musical TV show, prompting other accusations about the actress' alleged difficult behaviour to be raised.
Heather admitted only the late Naya Rivera was "honest" about what happened on set but at the time, she didn't feel like it was "her place" to raise the issue with executives on the programme.
Speaking on the 'Everything Iconic With Danny Pellegrino' podcast, Heather - who played Brittany S. Pierce on the show - said: “I remember getting so much shade and people were like, ‘Why don’t you go out and say it?’ And I’m like, ‘Guys, she’s pregnant and all this stuff is going around.'
"And it’s true, I don’t know if maybe we were victims of bullying, and it’s a very victim thing to do to blame yourself, which is what people were saying, but … the only person who was honest about it was Naya.
"It was something that was very hush-hush on set, and now you see all these things coming out with these bigger names who were very disrespectful and mistreated a lot of people.
“We absolutely could have stepped up and gone to the Fox execs and said how we felt about the situation, but no one did.
“I think many people were very scared, and I know, genuinely, I felt like it wasn’t my place, and I don’t know why because I was a cast member.”
And Heather speculated that some of Lea's behaviour could have been connected to her mourning her co-star and then-boyfriend Cory Monteith, who died in July 2013 after an overdose.
She said: “We all got close with Lea at different points, and then we all weren’t as close with her.
“So there’s that human element to understanding who this person is, growing with that person, seeing her try to become better and taking care of herself after Cory’s past. It was just the elephant in the room.”
Heather previously claimed Lea had been "unpleasant to work with" on 'Glee'.
In a statement shared after her former co-star apologised to Samantha, she said: "Let me be very clear, Hate is a disease in America that we are trying to cure, so I would never wish for hate to be spread to anyone else. With that said, was she unpleasant to work with? Very much so; for Lea to treat others with the disrespect that she did for as long as she did, I believe she SHOULD be called out.
"And yet, it's also on us because to allow it to go on for so long without speaking out is something else we're learning along with the rest of society.
"But, at the current moment its implied that she is a racist and although I cannot comment on her beliefs, I think we're assuming, and you know what happens when we all assume... (sic)"
Tagged in Lea Michele Cory Monteith Heather Morris