Before he died, Cory Monteith had been open about his struggles with addiction. In a 2011 interview with Parade, he revealed that his first attempt to seek treatment at age 19 was unsuccessful. “I did the stint but then went back to doing exactly what I left off doing,” he admitted. He tried to get clean again after he stole from a relative, who then offered him a choice between being charged with a crime or seeking help. He decided to turn his life around. “I’m lucky to be alive,” the actor told the magazine.
Unfortunately, Monteith had to return to rehab in 2013. Less than four months after People reported this news, he was dead. The coroner who investigated his death suggested that Monteith’s final attempt at kicking his habit could have played a role in his fatal overdose. When a regular heroin user stops taking the drug for a while, this alters their tolerance, which is something Monteith was possibly unaware of. “After a period of cessation from opioid drug use, a previously tolerated drug concentration level may become toxic and fatal,” the coroner’s report reads.
“Glee” director Adam Shankman told CNN that he spoke with Monteith the day before he died. “He said that he was doing amazing. He even said, ‘I am feeling fantastic,'” Shankman recalled. “I’m like everybody else, really devastated and confused by what happened.” One “Glee” star who took the news particularly hard was Lea Michele.
