Watch it and weep.
Lea Michele finally addressed the longstanding rumor she can’t read on Thursday’s “Therapuss” podcast episode.
The actress was surprised to find herself still addressing the rumors “all these years later.” To dispel doubts about her literacy, she took host Jake Shane’s flashcards and read from them as proof.
“Give me [those],” the “Scream Queens” alum, 38, declared, holding out her hands. “I’m reading them.
“Jonathan [Groff] isn’t here to read me this s–t,” she continued, referencing her “Spring Awakening” co-star. “Okay, ready?”
Michele recited, “I placed first in my debate competition and qualified for nationals. But after looking at the score sheets, I’m not sure if I deserved the win. Should I speak up or simply accept the victory?”
However, she predicted there would be theories Shane “called her in advance” to have her “memorize” the cards.
The “Glee” alum claimed she has “photographic memory too,” which is how she “memorized all those” lines for her character, Rachel Berry.
She added, “For everyone who thinks that I can’t f–king read, I was on the debate team. I would write speeches.”
Shane interrupted Michele to insist, “I know you can read!”
As for whether the “wild” rumors bother her, the Broadway star admitted that it “depends on the day” but can sometimes feel “sad and frustrating.”
She shared, “I’m one of the few women in my family to have been accepted to college. My mother and her whole family faced significant poverty in the Bronx and weren’t very well educated. My parents moved me from the Bronx to New Jersey to ensure I received a quality education and prospered, and that’s exactly what happened.”
The singer finds it “crazy that people care enough … that they would make up something” and have “so little to do in their life in their day” other than doubt her reading ability.
The speculation first went viral in 2017, with Michele revealing Ryan Murphy was the one to alert her to the chatter.
Groff, 40, was asked about Michele’s reading ability seven years later on the “Tactful Pettiness” podcast.
“I have seen her read,” the actor clarified in the October 2024 interview. “Let it be known. We’re dispelling it.”
The previous year, Michele poked fun at the rumors via TikTok when news broke that Barbra Streisand was publishing a memoir.
“265 days to learn to read,” the Emmy nominee quipped in the playful February 2023 upload.
