Pregnant Lea Michele DELETES her Twitter account amid trolling over ‘feud’ with Naya Rivera

Lea Michele has deactivated her Twitter account, after facing relentless trolling over her strained relationship with former Glee co-star Naya Rivera.

On Saturday night, fans took to Twitter in droves to comment on the fact that the pregnant actress, 33, had quit the micro-blogging platform after facing countless cruel comments amid the police search for Naya, 33, who is presumed dead.

Lea had been criticised by Twitter users for not publicly speaking out on Naya’s July 8th disappearance on California’s Lake Piru, while others used it as an opportunity to dredge up her previous falling out with her erstwhile co-star.

For her part, Naya had denied that she and Lea were ever locked in a feud, but did admit that they had a difficult working relationship on the set of their hit TV show. 

In her 2016 memoir, Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes and Growing Up, Naya, who played Santana Lopez opposite Lea’s Rachel Berry, addressed the issues.

She wrote: ‘We are both strong willed and competitive – not just with each other but with everyone – and that’s not a good mixture.

‘As Santana moved from a background character to one with bigger plot lines and more screen time. I think Rachel – erm, I mean Lea – didn’t like sharing the spotlight.

‘If I’d complained about anyone or anything, she’d assumed I was bitching about her. Soon, she started to ignore me, and eventually it got to the point where she didn’t say a word to me for all of season 6.’

Their relationship appeared to have mended over time, as Naya was one of the first to congratulate Lea on her pregnancy announcement, writing on Instagram: ‘Aww congrats! I love this. You’re going to be a great mommy!’

While some trolls continued to target Lea, many other Twitter users expressed their sympathy for the New York native.

Wrote supporter: ‘I don’t blame Lea Michele for deactivating her twitter account, the way people harassed her was insane. I think she should deactivate comments on instagram too.’

‘People going after Naya Rivera’s Glee cast for not speaking out needs to stop,’ added another. ‘Especially the harassment of Lea Michele, a woman who is about to give birth. Just because they’re not making public statements doesn’t mean they don’t care.’

Meanwhile, a third stated: ‘I do not support lea michele but she’s a pregnant woman whose friend is missing…

‘[S]he doesn’t deserve this bullying and y’all are proving that you don’t love naya if you spend your time bullying lea or other people, that’s not what naya needs right now. Spread positivity not hate.’ [sic]

MailOnline has contacted representatives for Lea Michele for comment. 

Some of Naya’s other friends and co-stars took to social media to post messages of hope after the actress went missing.

Demi Lovato, 27, and Glee star Heather Morris, 33, both took to Instagram on Thursday to urge fans to pray for her safe return. 

Singer and actress Demi, who played struggling artist Dani in Glee, appeared alongside Naya for six episodes in season five as her love interest.  

The singer shared a picture of a candle and wrote: ‘Please pray for @nayarivera to be found safe and sound. 

Heather, who plays Brittany S. Pierce, wrote on her Stories: ‘We need all the prayers we can to bring our Naya back home to us. We need your love and light.’ 

Actress and singer Tracie Thoms, 44, shared a poignant post Naya had shared just six days ago  in which she wrote that ‘tomorrow is not promised.’ 

Glee cast member Harry Shum Jr., [Mike Chang], simply wrote ‘Praying’, and Iqbal Theba, [Principal Figgins] and Max Adler, [David Karofsky], have also posted messages on social media.  

Vanessa Lengies, 34, who plays Sugar Motta wrote on Twitter: ‘I love her. I love you. Holding you tight.’

Actress Jackée Harry, 63, tweeted: ‘Prayers up for the lovely Naya Rivera. We starred alongside one another in her first very television series, The Royal Family, and I’ve watched her career blossom ever since. Please God, don’t cut this life short.’ 

Naya’s ex-fiancé, musician Big Sean, 32, later broke his silence about the news on social media, as he liked a series of messages praying for her safe return. 

One message read: ‘Prayers out to Naya Rivera. I hope she is ok.’ 

Big Sean, real name Sean Michael Leonard Anderson, also liked a post urging people to keep looking for Naya.

It read: ‘KEEP SEARCHING FOR NAYA RIVERA. HER SON NEEDS HER!!!!!” pleaded the fan.’ 

Naya and Big Sean got engaged in 2013 but he was alleged to have cheated on her with singer Ariana Grande, 27.  

The star is presumed dead after her four-year-old son, Josey Dorsey, was found alone in a boat in California.

The star and her son rented a pontoon boat on Lake Piru on Wednesday afternoon, but three hours later another boater raised the alarm after seeing the vessel drifting and the child asleep on board. 

Cops found Rivera’s life vest on the boat and believe that ‘she did go in the lake’ to go swimming, acknowledging that ‘this may well be a case of drowning’. Her car was reportedly found nearby. 

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department confirmed that night that the missing woman was Rivera, who starred in Glee from 2009 to 2015.   

Divers and helicopters have spent several days scouring the reservoir until darkness, with the search halting each time after darkness until first light. 

Rivera and her son are said to have been swimming in the lake, with only the boy getting back on the boat.

Authorities believe Rivera to be ‘presumed drowned’ and a search has been launched to locate her body, according to Captain Eric Buschow, a spokesman for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.  

A search and rescue dive team and a helicopter with a drone have both been dispatched to the scene to assist in the search.

Buschow told reporters: ‘They were seen going out on the lake together in the early afternoon, and approximately three hours after they left the dock another boater out on the lake discovered the boat drifting with the [son] on board asleep.

‘So they contacted the rangers and began an investigation and we’ve been actively searching for the mother since that time. We have both aerial search going on and our dive team as well.

‘Indications are that we believe she did go in the lake. At this point it’s still a search and that’s what we know up to this point.

‘The [son] said that she had been swimming with her mother and that she got back in the boat and her mum didn’t.

‘We know that the girl had a life vest on, there was another adult life vest found on the boat. It’s somewhat challenging interviewing a three-year-old.

‘We’re going on the belief that she did go in the water, and we’ve not been able to locate her. This may well be a case of drowning.

‘This is a big reservoir, it’s deep, these kinds of things happen. We don’t know all the circumstances. Investigators are working on that, getting as much information as possible.’

The sheriff’s office initially referred mistakenly to a three-year-old girl, but later clarified that the child is a four-year-old son.  

Rivera had just taken to her social media on July 7, sharing a touching photo of her with her son, Josey Hollis. ‘Just the two of us,’ she said in the post. 

Naya welcomed son, Josey Hollis, with then-husband Ryan Dorsey in 2015. 

The actress starred in Glee from 2009 to 2015, playing high school cheerleader Santana Lopez in the popular series. 

Lake Piru is a reservoir located in the Los Padres National Forest and Topatopa Mountains, created in 1955.