Lea Michele Says She Gets Emotional Rewatching Glee Nearly 7 Years After Cory Monteith's Death

Lea Michele sees a newfound poignance in Glee‘s storylines, six and a half years after the death of boyfriend and costar Cory Monteith.

On Thursday, for the debut episode of Showmance — the new Glee recap podcast hosted by cast members Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz — Michele, 33, reminisced about her time on the musical comedy series, as well as how rewatching it makes her emotional.

“We were just, like, so happy,” she said of their early days making the show, which eventually propelled the cast to superstardom. “We were really having the time of our lives.”

Focusing on the series’ pilot episode, McHale, 31, who played Artie, recalled filming a scene where he is rescued from a port-a-potty by Monteith’s character, Finn.

“He and are like: ‘This is insane, isn’t it? We are going to remember this for forever. This is special.’ It was just the two of us,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, this is really wild.'”

Upon rewatching the episode for the podcast recording, Michele said the unlikeliest scenes hit her the hardest.

“The moments that made me so emotional were not anything that ever has made me emotional before from the show, and one of them was when he took you out of that port-a-potty.”

She added: “… Him taking you out of that bathroom, and you see Finn’s heart — oh my God. … It’s really profound and very emotional.”

RELATED: Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz Are Launching a Glee Recap Podcast

Monteith was 31 when he died of a heroin overdose on July 13, 2013. Last summer, marking six years since his death, Michele honored her late boyfriend with a sweet tribute on social media.

“The light always remains ❤️,” she captioned the post on Twitter.

Michele — now married to Zandy Reich — met Monteith on set in 2009 and was in a relationship with him until his sudden death. Michele also commemorated him when she got a Finn tattoo last year on her upper thigh.

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RELATED: Lea Michele Says ‘The Light Always Remains’ in Tribute to Ex Cory Monteith 6 Years After His Death

Gleeks everywhere rejoiced earlier this month when it was revealed that McHale and Ushkowitz, 33, would host a podcast to recap every episode of the popular Ryan Murphy series, which ran on Fox from 2009 to 2015.

The two started recording Showmance last March to chat about their relationship on- and off-screen. But the subject of Glee was raised so much, they decided to recap the show for season 2.

“Throughout the season, it just felt like all of it was Glee love,” Ushkowitz told EW. “Our Glee fans followed our careers after Glee, and our listeners just wanted more Glee, so we decided to give them what they were asking for.”

She added: “It won’t be too structured. There should be so many new things [to talk about]. Personal moments, reflections now that we may not have wanted to share before. We have such vivid memories about what we were feeling then.”