Lea Michele deletes Twitter account amid trolling over Naya Rivera’s disappearance

Lea Michele has deleted her Twitter account amid trolling over the disappearance of her Glee co-star Naya Rivera.

Michele’s account on the platform, which is followed by more than four million people, disappeared on Saturday (11 July).

While Michele has not yet addressed the deletion, her account had in recent days been tagged in a number of tweets demanding she comment on Rivera’s disappearance. Others had tagged her directly in abusive messages.

Rivera, who rose to fame alongside Michele on Glee, is feared to have drowned after she rented a pontoon boat on Wednesday (8 July) with her son Josey, and failed to return to shore. Josey, four, was found alone and asleep on the boat.

Michele and Rivera were at the centre of a number of feud rumours when Glee was on the air, with Rivera writing about the tension between them in her 2016 memoir Sorry Not Sorry.

“I don’t hate Lea, and I never have,” Rivera wrote. “[But] I think [she] didn’t like sharing the spotlight. She had a hard time separating work from our outside friendship, whereas it was a lot easier for me … Lea was a lot more sensitive, though, and sometimes it seemed like she blamed me for anything and everything that went wrong.”

Michele, who had not been active on Twitter since 1 June, has stayed away from all of her social media since 3 June, when she posted a note on her Instagram addressing allegations about her behaviour on Glee.

Actor Samantha Marie Ware accused Michele of making her life “a living hell” on the Glee set due to “traumatic microaggressions”. Other stars followed Ware by coming forward with their own allegations against Michele. She was subsequently dropped as a spokesperson for the food company Hello Fresh.

Michele wrote in response: “Whether it was my privileged position and perspective that caused me to be perceived as insensitive or inappropriate at times or whether it was just my immaturity and me just being unnecessarily difficult, I apologise for my behaviour and for any pain which I have caused.”

Police in California, meanwhile, have confirmed that there is “little to no evidence” that Rivera made it back to shore, while continuing to search for her body.