Lea Michele Proves She Can Read, Shutting Down Those Rumors

Lea Michele is dispelling the strange rumor that’s been following her for years once and for all. During her May 8 appearance on the Therapuss podcast, Michele brought up the conspiracy theory that she can’t read, and decided to prove her literacy right in front of the cameras. “Give me the notecards! I’m reading them,” Michele demanded, going on to cold-read several fan-submitted questions that host Jake Shane was meant to read himself.

Although the show of literacy impressed Shane (“Not a f*cking stutter!” he exclaimed), Michele bemoaned that nothing she reads can convince the conspiracy theorists at this point. “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. This proves nothing,’” the actor said.

The viral rumor first sprang up in 2017, when podcasters Jaye Hunt and Robert Ackerman posted a comedic slideshow with a list of proposed “evidence” that Michele had never learned to read. In the years since, Michele has both poked fun at the gossip, and also expressed how the assumption is hurtful. On Therapuss, Michele said how she feels about the theory “depends on the day.”

“Sometimes I think it’s crazy that people care enough about me that they would make up something,” Michele said. “That someone has so little to do in their life and their day that they would waste it on me is hilarious to me. And then there are moments where I f*cking get so frustrated by it because I'm one of the only women in my whole family to get accepted to college ... For someone to minimize that, it's so sad and so frustrating. It’s really wild.”

Michele also revealed how she first learned the bizarre speculation from a famous collaborator. “Ryan Murphy called me and he was like, ‘Have you heard this rumor?’ And I was like, ‘No, what’s going on?’” Michele said. “The same day that that all came out, Donald Trump said he was going to punch John McCain in the face or something like that ... but what was trending online more was ‘Lea Michele can’t read.’”

Well, now Michele can rest assured that she’s fully proven her reading abilities on camera for any doubters to see.