Lea Michele apologized on Wednesday—two days after her former Glee costar Samantha Marie Ware, who is black, accused Michele of threatening to “shit in my wig” among “other traumatic microaggressions” on the set of the Fox series.

“While I don’t remember ever making this specific statement and I have never judged others by their background or color of their skin, that’s not really the point,” Michele wrote in a statement posted to her Instagram page. “What matters is that I clearly acted in ways which hurt other people. Whether it was my privileged position and perspective that caused me to be perceived as insensitive or inappropriate at times or whether it was just my immaturity and me just being unnecessarily difficult, I apologize for my behavior and for any pain which I have caused. We all can grow and change and I have definitely used these past several months to reflect on my own shortcomings.”

Last week, Michele tweeted in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. “George Floyd did not deserve this. This was not an isolated incident and it must end,” she wrote.

On Monday, in response, Ware called out Michele in an all-caps tweet that quickly went viral, writing that the Glee star made her first television job a “living hell.” Ware appeared on 11 episodes of Glee in 2015, playing a character who eventually joined the glee club led by Michele’s character, Rachel Berry.

In response to the tweet, a number of Michele’s former costars expressed either direct or indirect solidarity with Ware and her experiences on the show. Alex Newell, who appeared in numerous episodes of Glee from 2012-2015, replied with a GIF from RuPaul's Drag Race.

Actor Dabier, who appeared on one episode, wrote that Michele wouldn’t let him sit with other cast members. “Fuck you,” he added in all-caps.

Glee original cast member Amber Riley, while not mentioning Michele or Ware or their social media posts, did tweet a series GIFs that perhaps illustrated her feelings on the matter.

The tweets reminded some onlookers of similar charges made by Glee star Naya Rivera in her 2016 memoir Sorry Not Sorry. In the book, Rivera accused Michele of diva behavior, saying that while she and Michele were initially friendly, “as the show progressed, though, that friendship started to break down, especially 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.” On a 2019 episode of Watch What Happens Live, though, Rivera denied feuding with Michele: “I don't think there was, like, any beef,” she told host Andy Cohen.

In the wake of Ware’s tweet, Michele lost her partnership deal with HelloFresh, which tweeted this week, “HelloFresh does not condone racism nor discrimination of any kind. We are disheartened and disappointed to learn of the recent claims concerning Lea Michele. We take this very seriously, and have ended our partnership with Lea Michele, effective immediately.”

Michele, who did not apologize to Ware specifically by name, said she will seek to use this moment as an opportunity to grow as a person going forward. “I am a couple of months from becoming a mother and I know I need to keep working to better myself and take responsibility for my actions, so that I can be a real role model for my child and so I can pass along my lessons and mistakes, so that they can learn from me,” she wrote. “I listened to these criticisms and I am learning and while I am very sorry, I will be better in the future from this experience.”

— The Week the Cameras Stopped: TV in the COVID-19 Era
— Why Natalie Wood’s Daughter Is Confronting Robert Wagner About Wood’s Death
— Inside Rock Hudson’s Real-Life Relationship With Agent Henry Wilson
— How The Mandalorian Fought to Keep Baby Yoda From Being Too Cute
— A First Look at Charlize Theron’s Immortal Warrior in The Old Guard
— Back to the Future, Uncut Gems, and More New Titles on Netflix This Month
— From the Archive: How Rock Hudson and Doris Day Helped Define the Romantic Comedy

Looking for more? Sign up for our daily Hollywood newsletter and never miss a story.