Cory Monteith’s Mom ‘Couldn’t Look at a Picture’ of Him Until Recently

Eddy Chen/FOX(NEW YORK) — It has been a year since Glee’s Cory Monteith died of a drug overdose. His mother, Ann McGregor, is now speaking publicly for the first time about the son she called “baby bear.”

“I’m beginning to accept it,” she told ABC News in a segment that aired on Thursday’s Good Morning America. “The loss is horrendous. Until three days ago I couldn’t look at a picture of Cory. So there’s been progress.”

Monteith, who played the character Finn Hudson on Fox’s Glee, was found dead in his Vancouver, British Columbia hotel room July 13, 2013. The actor died of a mixture of alcohol and intravenous heroin, according to the coroner’s report. He was 31.

McGregor is still unable to talk about the night she found out about her son’s death, but did reveal that his then-girlfriend, Glee co-star Lea Michele, is still in touch with her via texts and emails.

“She’s hurting, too,” said McGregor. “I mean, you see the sadness. I know her pain.”

McGregor said that her son started to get into trouble with drugs as a teenage, overdosing at 15.

“He had a lot of emotional things he was trying to figure out — lot of it was he really wanted a relationship with his father,” she explained. “I think when a child gets invalidated they keep reaching even harder. They want to find out why.”

Monteith’s father, Joe Monteith, has been estranged from the family for many years and was not invited to his son’s memorial. Monteith never showed any interest in Cory’s life until the last two years, when Cory became successful, McGregor said.

Asked what advice she had for the mothers of other stars who are facing similar problems, McGregor replied: “I don’t think we have power to change the choices they’re making. I think with the kind of connection Cory and I had, if we couldn’t prevent that situation, I don’t have the answer. What could I say to them? Live every moment. Grab the second.”

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