Lea Michele ‘taken down by grief’

Lea Michele thinks "grief is a very scary thing".

The 27-year-old Glee actress was hit by tragedy when her boyfriend Cory Monteith passed away from a narcotics overdose in a Vancouver hotel room last summer.

According to People magazine, Lea poured her heart out with guests about how she coped with the loss during a small listening party for her new album Louder.

"I just literally keeled over," Lea is quoted as saying at the Los Angeles event on Tuesday.

"Grief is a very scary thing, and there comes a point where it can really take you down."

But the star moved on to state she has no regrets about her relationship with Cory.

They were together for around two years, having come public in 2011, and Lea relishes every moment of their romance.

"I'm so grateful to get to say that I experienced true love and I think that a lot of people unfortunately don't," she explained.

"They'll go a whole lifetime without this experience. I did and I consider myself so lucky. It takes me back to the best time of my life, so whenever I need to remember that, I play that song."

But fortunately Lea says writing songs for her new LP has "really been the greatest medicine" for grief.

She also reveals the loss of Cory made her present to how fragile life is.

"If I've learned anything from this past year it's that you have one life," she said.

"I didn't really understand what that meant until recently. You have to live your life to the fullest and you have to love as hard as you can love."

Lea's first studio album Louder will be released on February 28.