Lea Michele Attempts to Dispel Longstanding Rumor That She Can't Read

For years now, Lea Michele has been plagued by a rumor that she cannot read. Now, the actor has offered up proof that she can, in fact, read, but even while doing so, she recognized that some conspiracy theorists might say that the proof is fabricated, because she just wants us to think that she's literate. She can't win!

The rumor traces back to 2017. As reported by W magazine, Jaye Hunt and Robert Ackerman, the hosts of the podcast One More Thing, posted a Facebook Live video with their "evidence" that Michele can't read. (They posit that its because she was too busy acting and singing as a child to learn how.) It was done in jest, but the theory took off. It still randomly pops up online, and Michele has been asked about it ever since.

Now, as reported by E! News, in a new interview with Therapuss with Jake Shane, Michele brought up the rumor herself, and then attempted to debunk it by reading something on camera.

When Shane and Michele were responding to a question a listener wrote in that had to do with being a debater, Michele said, "I was a national debater in New Jersey. Bergen County champion debater over here ... For everyone who thinks that I can’t fucking read, like, I was on the debate team. I would write speeches."

Michele then asked that Shane give her the card he was reading from, so she could prove that she's literate. "Jonathan is not here to read me this shit," she said, referencing her best friend Jonathan Groff, who has responded to the rumor, too. She also joked with Shane that she needed help with one of the words.

But after reading the card perfectly, Michele realized that it probably wouldn't be enough. "The theories are going to be like, 'Jake called her in advance. This doesn't prove anything. She memorized it. She saw the cards in advance.'"

Shane asked Michele how she feels about the theory, and she said that it "depends on the day" whether she finds it amusing or frustrating.

"Sometimes I think it's crazy that people care enough about me that they would make up something. That someone has so little to do in their life and their day that they would waste it on me is, like, hilarious to me," the 38-year-old actor said. "And then there are moments where I fucking get so frustrated by it, because I'm one of the only women in my whole family to get accepted to college."

She explained that her mother's family was "extremely poor" and her own parents moved from the Bronx to New Jersey, for her to "get a good education and to thrive."

She went on, "And I did, and my parents and my family are, like, so proud of that. And it really was important for my grandmother to see me. And so for someone to minimize that—it's like so sad and so frustrating. But, yeah, I don’t know, it’s wild."

Shane told Michele, "The rumor is so camp and so out of love from the gay community at this point." She responded, "Is it, though?!" and they both laughed.

This is far from the first time Michele has addressed the rumor. In a 2022 profile in The New York Times, she talked about the conspiracy theory, as well as the hate she receives online.

"I went to Glee every single day; I knew my lines every single day," she said. "And then there’s a rumor online that I can’t read or write? It’s sad. It really is. I think often if I were a man, a lot of this wouldn’t be the case."

When Hunt and Ackerman's video first went viral, Michele joked about it. Responding to a tweet about the topic, she posted (via W), "Loved READING this tweet and wanted to WRITE you back? literally laughing out loud at all this? love you!!!"