Lea Michele: I lost two people when Cory died

Lea Michele has only spoken openly about the sudden death of her boyfriend and costar in a few statements, tweets and an emotional awards show acceptance speech -- until now.

With showrunner Ryan Murphy and costar Matthew Morrison by her side, the 27-year-old actress discussed the impact of Cory Monteith's death with TV Week Australia, ahead of the premiere of "Glee's" highly anticipated memorial episode.

"I feel like, for me personally, I've lost two people: Cory and Finn," Michele, who has often spoke about her own personal connection to her "Glee" character, told the mag.

"We had a beautiful memorial for Cory in the auditorium and some of the cast members sang and people spoke about him," Michele said of the tribute episode. "It only felt right that we would do the same thing for Finn, so I felt it was very therapeutic."

Michele was also adamant about staying on the show.

"Everyone is asking: ‘Is it hard to do this? Is it hard to be back at work?,' but the truth is it’s no harder at work than it is in life so we might as well all be together as a family supporting each other to get through this together," she said.

The young actress also spoke about the love she shared with Monteith.

“I really woke up every single day feeling like I was being in some sort of spell or something, that I was lucky enough to have him in my life," she said.

"Glee's" tribute to Monteith, an episode titled "The Quarterback," airs Thursday on FOX.