Lea Michele is engaged! How she found love again after Cory Monteith's death

Lea Michele with Zandy Reich; Lea Michele with Cory Monteith.

Lea Michele is on cloud nine after getting engaged to boyfriend Zandy Reich. Over the weekend, the Glee actress proudly showed off her four-carat diamond ring on Instagram, exclaiming she said yes.

Michele’s happily-ever-after comes nearly five years after she suffered the biggest heartbreak of her life: the death of Cory Monteith. He died in July 2013 from a lethal combination of heroin and alcohol.

Monteith, who was 31 at the time of his death, and Michele met on the set of Glee. They briefly dated when the show first aired in 2009 but ended things before the public caught on. Then in 2011, they rekindled their romance and didn’t bother hiding it.

“From the minute I met Cory, I was like, ‘This is the most handsome man I’ve ever seen in my whole life,'” Michele reminisced to Elle. “One day we just looked at each other and we were like, ‘You wanna do this?’ We knew.”

Monteith went to rehab in March 2013, and his struggles with drugs and alcohol were made public for the first time. “I can only imagine what it looks like from the outside,” Michele told the magazine after his death in 2013. “It was such a short period of time between when people found out to, you know, July, but there are so many personal aspects of this whole journey that people are not invited to know. We had a full life, and that had lots of different details that will be ours forever, for only us to know.”

The co-stars were living together and head-over-heels in love when Monteith was found dead in a hotel room in Canada. According to reports, the pair had even been talking marriage and were practically engaged.

The actress kept a low-profile after the tragedy but slowly began to pick up the pieces and try to move on with her life. In an interview with Teen Vogue in January 2014, Michele said she believed it was Monteith who was providing her with the strength to keep going.

“I somehow feel the insane love Cory and I had for each other morphed into this strength that I have right now,” she said. “There’s just something about knowing he’s watching everything I’m doing and feeling like I have to do everything now not just for me but for him. I also have a safety net below me — if I fall or if it’s too much, my friends and family will be there to catch me.”

Eventually that meant trying to date again too. In 2014, the Scream Queens actress began seeing Matthew Paetz, whom she met on the set of her music video “On My Way” in April 2014.

Lea Michele and Matthew Paetz in 2015.

“I wanted to make sure that I was OK with me, feeling strong and feeling happy on my own. I didn’t want anybody to fill any holes for me — that sounds sexual! I wanted to make sure that I was a whole person again and that no one was coming into my life to put me back together. I needed to do that on my own,” she told Flare in 2015. “I worked very, very, very hard, and I got back to that place where I was genuinely happy and strong and ready to live again and see the world and, you know, bring in more beautiful experiences. And that’s when someone miraculously came into my life.”

Although Michele was trying her best to move on, she found it challenging to do so publicly. Some deemed that the actress rebounded too soon from Monteith.

“I love my fans. They’re incredible, and they were really a part of my whole story and my whole journey with me, so I do come from a place of understanding, but it’s also really hard,” she revealed on the Fempire podcast. “You know, every time I post a picture, then it’s just a landslide of comments that talk about my past and bring that up rather than projecting positivity.”

She continued: “And even though, you know, I don’t think anyone is really projecting hate — it is positive, it’s nothing so, so terrible, but at the end of the day, we have to remember that what we put out there, it manifests and it creates energy and you should want to be the person that chooses to take that second to do something positive.”

As engagement buzz surrounded the pair around their second anniversary, Paetz and Michele abruptly split in 2016. There were various reports as to what happened, but the actress never commented on why they broke up. A few months later, she was linked to Robert Buckley. The actors apparently met through mutual friends, but their relationship quickly fizzled out.

Lea Michele and Robert Buckley.

It wasn’t until a year later that Michele was first linked to her future fiancé. Reich and Michele were photographed holding hands in New York City in July 2017. While the coupling seemed new, it was apparently a long time coming.

“They’ve been friends for a long time, a few years,” a source told People at the time. “Things turned romantic recently, and they’re dating now.”

Reich is the president of AYR, or All Year Round Clothing. Prior to AYR, he worked at Goldman Sachs and was the head of business strategy and development for Theory.

The couple have kept their relationship private aside from a few Instagram posts from the actress. (It doesn’t appear that Reich is publicly on social media.)

Why Did Blake Lively Suddenly Delete Her Instagram Account?

Why Did Blake Lively Suddenly Delete Her Instagram?

What happened to Blake Lively‘s Instagram account?

The actress appears to have deleted all of her photos from the social media platform — everything from her profile pic, to her fan-loved pranks on husband Ryan Reynolds, as well as her enviable fashion posts.

While it’s unclear why Lively, 30, deleted the photos on Monday, her last post was a bit mysterious — she posted a photo of a completed game of hangman, the answer to which was a question, “What happened to Emily?” — which is also her new Instagram bio.

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds

Fans of Lively were quick to notice the changes, and that the actress is now only following women (27 and counting) with the name Emily Nelson. A few fans speculated that the star’s blank Instagram and sudden love for Emily Nelsons everywhere has something to do with her upcoming film, A Simple Favor. The film, directed by Paul Feig and also starring Anna Kendrick, is an adaptation of a book by the same name in which a woman named Emily Nelson mysteriously vanishes.

Some of the Emily Nelson’s on social media have caught on to Lively and are wondering, publicly, why the well-known actress has suddenly started following her.

“Does anyone want to tell me why Blake Lively followed me and had this as a bio,” one Emily Nelson asked. “Goodbye cruel world some hacker is anti-Emily, my time has come :-)”

 Nelson quickly tweeted again, noticing that Reynolds, 41, had liked her tweet, sharing her excitement by writing, “ALRIGHT SO LONG F—— LOSERS MY EGO IS ETERNALLY THROUGH THE ROOF BYE.”

Another Twitter user noticed as well, tweeting, “I’m so confused why is Blake Lively’s entire Instagram deleted and now she only follows girls named Emily Nelson.”

Others believed Lively had been hacked, including one user who tweeted, “Someone hacked @blakelively instagram & followed 23 Emily Nelson pages.”

Fans also attempted to catch Lively’s attention and gain her as a follower, with one user named Sofia tweeting, “my name is emily nelson too @blakelively.”

Another tweeted, “Tempted to change my name to Emily Nelson, so I can get a follow from Blake Lively. Lol.”

Before Lively went offline, she showed off a gold necklace from Lola James Jewelry which clearly spelled out Reynolds’ last name in a sweet tribute to her husband of five years.

Alongside the sweet statement necklace, Lively also wore a floral print Michael Kors dress as well as jewelry from Anthropologie and Jen Meyer Jewelry.

If Lively is actually removing herself from Instagram, her playful social media jabs at Reynolds will be missed. Recently, the actress made an epic comeback when she shared a photo herself and Reynolds at the premiere of A Quiet Place.

In the photo, Reynolds is smiling at Lively and she has her hand placed on his chest, but instead of captioning the snap with a message about their love, she decided to pay herself a compliment.

“If there’s one thing I’m infinitely proud of in this picture, it’s the incredible hair styling that I did on myself,” she wrote, ignoring her husband.

John Cena and Dwayne Johnson Team Up for Universal’s ‘The Janson Directive’

John Cena and Dwayne Johnson Team Up for Universal’s ‘The Janson Directive’

Six years ago, they faced off at Wrestlemania. Now John Cena and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will be a movie-making tag team in the upcoming Universal action-thriller, “The Janson Directive,” with Cena starring and Johnson executive producing through his Seven Bucks production banner.

Based on the novel by Jason Bourne writer Robert Ludlum, the film will star Cena as Paul Janson, a former Navy SEAL who left the world of covert ops after his commander betrayed him during the Vietnam War. Now working as a security consultant, he returns to his old world when he’s asked to save a Nobel Peace laureate being held hostage. When the hostage is killed, Janson is framed for the murder and must uncover a deep conspiracy while being the target of a directive demanding he be stopped at all costs.


The novel was released in 2002, a year after Ludlum’s death.

“I’ve known John for years, he’s so excited to play the role,” Johnson said in a social media post announcing Cena’s casting. “I’m excited for him and he’s very committed.”

Both wrestlers have released films this past month. Cena starred in Universal’s comedy “Blockers,” which has grossed $77.5 million worldwide against a $21 million budget. Johnson’s mega-budget film, “Rampage,” grossed $335 million worldwide with $106 million from China.

Johnson will executive produce alongside Dany Garcia for Seven Bucks and Tracey Nyberg of Mythology. Producers include Ben Smith and Jeffrey Weiner of Captivate Entertainment; Hiram Garcia of Seven Bucks Productions; James Vanderbilt; Brad Fischer and William Sherak of Mythology; and Akiva Goldsman of Weed Road Pictures.

Goldsman shares story credit with James Vanderbilt, who is adapting Ludlum’s novel for the big screen. Executive vice president of production Mark Sourian and creative executive Lexi Barta will oversee production for Universal. Cena is represented by ICM Partners.

A Complete List of Who Lives and Dies in Avengers: Infinity War

You expected superheroes to die in Avengers: Infinity War. You probably didn’t expect so many superheroes would perish by the end of the film.

The Russo brothers, who directed the film, let audiences know early on that no character was safe: fan favorite Loki is killed off in the first few minutes. Other characters met an ugly fate throughout the movie at the hands of Thanos and his minions, including Gamora (more on that later). But it wasn’t until the very end of the film that heroes begin to disappear — literally.

Thanos fulfills his plan to destroy half of all life in the universe, and with the snap of his fingers, people being to disintegrate. But are they really gone? Probably not. Black Panther just broke every record at the box office, and Disney is eager to make a sequel. A second Spider-Man is already in the works. And Marvel has confirmed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will hit theaters in 2020.

How then will the remaining heroes bring all these characters back? Note that all the members of the original Avengers team — Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow and (presumably) Hawkeye — survived Thanos’ attack. Presumably they will unite one last time in Avengers 4 next year to reverse the curse.

In the meantime, here is a full list of Avengers: Infinity War deaths and of those who survived.

Here’s who died in Avengers: Infinity War

 Loki: Turns out Loki (Tom Hiddleston) wasn’t such a bad guy after all. In the opening scene of the movie, Loki hands over the Tesseract to Thanos (Josh Brolin) to save Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) life. Loki offers fake fealty to Thanos and then immediately tries to assassinate the evil alien. Thanos doesn’t buy Loki’s trick and quickly murders him. Thanos quips, “No resurrections this time” after killing the trickster god, who has seemingly died twice before in the film series.

Heimdall: Thanos and his children murder Thor’s best friend Heimdall (Idris Elba) when they invade Thor’s ship. But before he dies, the Asgardian opens up a gateway to Earth for the Hulk to escape. Thor cries out when Heimdall perishes, and swears that Thanos will die for his actions. He does sort of avenge Heimdall later by stabbing Thanos, but unfortunately Thanos is already invincible at that point.

Gamora: Thanos travels to a planet with his adopted daughter Gamora (Zoe Saldana). There, they encounter Red Skull, the baddie from Captain America: The First Avenger who has been cursed to guard the Soul Stone. Red Skull tells Thanos that he will have to sacrifice something he loves in order to get the Soul Stone. Despite taking a commanding lead in the World’s Worst Dad competition, Thanos apparently loves Gamora — just enough to throw her over a cliff. Gamora dies and Thanos walks away with another Infinity Stone.

Don’t mourn yet though: If the Avengers find a way to reverse all that Thanos has done, they may be able to bring Gamora back. And who better to finally kill the villain in the end?

Vision: Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) destroys the Infinity Stone inside Vision’s (Paul Bettany) head to keep it from Thanos. But Thanos uses the Time Stone to turn back time and restore the stone and Vision. He then crushes Vision’s head in his hands and takes the Infinity Stone. Vision is left lifeless on the ground.

Here’s who disintegrated in Avengers: Infinity War

Black Panther/T’Challa: Okoye (Danai Gurira) cries out as her king disintegrates. Chadwick Boseman will likely be back, but in the meantime will someone else don the Black Panther suit? Here’s hoping Shuri or Okoye get to try out his claws.

Spider-Man/Peter Parker: Poor Spider-Man (Tom Holland). He was just a kid. But don’t worry, Spider-Man is already set to appear in a Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel next year. There is a small chance that Tom Holland’s Spidey really did die, and Miles Morales — another Spider-Man from the comic books whose existence Marvel teased in Homecoming — could take over for him.

Doctor Strange/Stephen Strange: Marvel has been cagey about confirming a Doctor Strange 2 and now we know why. Doctor Strange disintegrates in Infinity War. But he also is the only character who hints that he may be able to return. As he dies, he tells Iron Man that giving up the Time Stone to Thanos in exchange for Iron Man’s life was the “only way.”

Earlier in the movie, Doctor Strange looked into many possible futures and probably saw that the only way to ultimately defeat Thanos — and possibly bring everyone back —w as to lose that particular battle.

Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes and Falcon/Sam Wilson: Many fans have speculated that either Bucky or Falcon will take over the Captain America mantle when Steve Rogers retires. But his time has not come yet: Cap survives but loses his two best friends.

Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff: This loss hurts: Scarlet Witch seems to be the only superhero with the ability to destroy an Infinity Stone. The Avengers will have to find a clever way to destroy the stones as they fight Thanos in the next movie.

The Guardians of the Galaxy: The remaining Guardians — Star-Lord, Groot, Drax and Mantis — all perish in the culling. However, director James Gunn has already confirmed that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will happen. So some combination of these characters and Gamora will almost certainly be resurrected.

Nick Fury and Maria Hill: The former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents disintegrate in New York in a post-credit scene from the film — but not before they call on Captain Marvel for help. (More on her later.)

Here’s who survived Avengers: Infinity War

Captain America/Steve Rogers: Captain America actor Chris Evans has been suggesting for months that he would die in Infinity War. But when he faces down Thanos one-on-one, Thanos inexplicably decides to toss Cap aside instead of just killing him. Captain America survives.

Iron Man/Tony Stark: Despite being stabbed in the stomach, Iron Man survives. Doctor Strange trades the Time Stone to save Iron Man’s life.

Thor: With the help of his new battle axe, Thor is able to stab Thanos in the heart. Thor survives, but he doesn’t stop Thanos from destroying half the universe.

Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff: Black Widow takes out several of Thanos’ children in the battle in Wakanda and survives the fight.

Hulk/Bruce Banner: Bruce Banner also manages to live despite his inability to turn into the Hulk for most of the movie.

War Machine/James Rhodes: Rhodey lost the use of his legs at the end of Captain America: Civil War (though he can now walk with the aid of Stark technology). At least he made it through the end of Infinity War.

Rocket and Nebula: Of the original Guardians crew, only Rocket survives. Gamora’s sister Nebula also lives. Perhaps the two will reunite in the next film.

Okoye and M’Baku: Black Panther may be dead, but Wakanda lives on. Okoye and M’Baku survive. Likely, one of them — or perhaps Shuri — will have to lead the Wakandan army in any Avengers 4 battles.

Here’s who went M.I.A. in Avengers: Infinity War

Shuri: Black Panther’s sister Shuri tries to remove the Infinity Stone from Vision’s head, but is thrown from her lab by one of Thanos’ children before she can finish. We don’t see what happens to her when half the world’s population disappears. If she did survive, there is a chance that Shuri become the new Black Panther in her brother’s absence (as she does at various points in the comic books).

Pepper Potts: The last we heard from Pepper, she was berating Tony for abandoning her to fight evil — again. We don’t know whether she survived the culling. But if she lived, she could fight in Avengers 4. After all, Pepper gained super powers in Iron Man 3.

Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers: If you stayed for the post-credit scene, you know that Nick Fury called Captain Marvel right before he disintegrated. The new, extremely powerful hero probably survived the culling and will likely swoop in to help save the day in Avengers 4. Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) will also get her own solo film in March of 2019 before Avengers 4 drops.

Hawkeye/Clint Barton: The archer (Jeremy Renner) was conspicuously missing from Avengers: Infinity War. The stay-at-home dad apparently told the rest of the Avengers that fighting Thanos was too risky. But maybe if Hawkeye survived he will want to join his old buddies to avenge the members of his family who died.

Ant-Man/Scott Lang: We know from the Ant-Man and the Wasp trailer that Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) was put under house arrest after the events of Captain America: Civil War and before Infinity War. Likely, Ant-Man was under surveillance or missing during the events of Infinity War. We don’t know if he survived.

The Collector: We see the Collector (Benicio del Toro) alive and well in Thanos’ alternate reality, but then discover he’s not actually hanging out in his museum. Did Thanos kill him? Did he flee? Did he survive the culling? We don’t know.

Valkyrie: Where is Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson)? At the end of Thor: Ragnarok, Thor’s new ally Valkyrie boarded the ship bound for earth along with Thor, the Hulk, Loki, Heimdall and the rest of the Asgardians. But we don’t see her dead on the ground when Thanos takes over that same ship at the beginning of Infinity WAr. Thor makes no mention of her. Did she run out to get chips and guac on an escape pod and miss the whole fight?

Wong and Ned: Wong (Benedict Wong) returns to the Sanctum Sanctorum to protect the building after Doctor Strange is taken captive by Thanos’ children. We never see whether he lives or dies. We also never find out whether Ned, who creates a distraction for his friend Spider-Man to escape a school field trip at the beginning of the movie, lives or dies.

Mass child sacrifice site in Peru may be largest in history

This photo provided by National Geographic shows how the face of this child was painted with a red cinnabar-based pigment, at the Huanchaquito-Las Llamas site near Trujillo, Peru - National Geographic

Archaeologists in northern Peru say they have found evidence of what could be the world’s largest single case of child sacrifice.

The pre-Columbian burial site, known as Las Llamas, contains the skeletons of 140 children who were between the ages of five and 14 when they were ritually sacrificed during a ceremony about 550 years ago, experts who led the excavation told The Associated Press on Friday.

The site, located near the modern day city of Trujillo, also contained the remains of 200 young llamas apparently sacrificed on the same day.

The burial site was apparently built by the ancient Chimu empire. It is thought the children were sacrificed as floods caused by the El Nino weather pattern ravaged the Peruvian coastline.

"They were possibly offering the gods the most important thing they had as a society, and the most important thing is children because they represent the future," said Gabriel Prieto, an archaeology professor at Peru’s National University of Trujillo, who has led the excavation, along with John Verano of Tulane University.

"Llamas were also very important because these people had no other beasts of burden, they were a fundamental part of the economy," Prieto said, adding the children were buried facing the sea, while the llamas faced the Andes Mountains to the east.

More than a dozen bodies were preserved in dry sand for more than 500 years Credit: AP

Excavation work at the burial site started in 2011, but news of the findings was first published on Thursday by National Geographic, which helped finance the investigation.

Prieto said that besides the bones, researchers also found footprints that have survived rain and erosion. The small footprints indicate the children were marched to their deaths from Chan Chan, an ancient city a mile away from Las Llamas, he said.

Verano said the children’s skeletons contained lesions on their breastbones, which were probably made by a ceremonial knife. Dislocated ribcages suggest that whoever was performing the sacrifices may have been trying to extract the children’s hearts.

Jeffrey Quilter, the director of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology at Harvard University, described it as a "remarkable discovery."

In an email, Quilter said the site provides "concrete evidence" that large scale sacrifices of children occurred in ancient Peru.

Quilter is heading a team of scientists who will analyse DNA samples from the children’s remains to see if they were related and figure out from which areas of the Chimu empire the sacrificed youth came.

Several ancient cultures in the Americas practised human sacrifices including the Mayans, the Aztecs and the Incas, who conquered the Chimu empire in the late 15th century. But the mass sacrifice of children is something that has rarely been documented.

The Las Llamas site is located in a shantytown, and has been fenced off to stop illegal developers from building homes on it.

Prieto says the site shows how in Peru history can be just around the corner.

"This site surrounded by houses in a working class neighbourhood can tell us a lot about a macabre event that is perhaps one of the darkest moments in our history," Prieto said. "But this is also part of our cultural heritage."