Emma Roberts Fueled The Conspiracy Theory That Lea Michele Can’t Read

In 2017, podcast hosts Jaye Hunt and Robert Ackerman sparked a viral rumor that actor Lea Michele can’t read or write.

The pair were discussing Naya Rivera’s memoir at the time, which contains an anecdote about Lea refusing to improvise scenes when they worked together on Glee.

Speaking on their podcast One More Thing, the pop culture enthusiasts theorized that the reason that Lea never improvised was because she had just memorized lines that had been read to her from the script.

They then joked that Lea probably hadn’t read Naya’s memoir, and this led to a 40-minute long Facebook Live discussion with further “evidence” that Lea can’t read.

The two have always maintained that the theory was in jest, and later told Jezebel that it was “based” on the idea that Lea is a former child star, so she may not have learned how to read and write at school.

At the time, Lea joined in on the joke, retweeting a fan who had referenced it and adding: “Loved READING this tweet and wanted to WRITE you back? literally laughing out loud at all this? love you!!! ?❤️”

And after a few years on the back burner, the theory was back with a vengeance in 2022 after Lea admitted that it does get under her skin.

In fact, in August she suggested to the New York Times that the entire thing was misogynistic.

“I went to Glee every single day; I knew my lines every single day,” she said. “And then there’s a rumor online that I can’t read or write? It’s sad. It really is. I think often if I were a man, a lot of this wouldn’t be the case.”

But despite this, she has continued to poke fun at herself on social media — even referencing the rumor when she first joined TikTok in September.

Everybody ran with the joke, and soon her followers were translating all of their comments into emojis so that Lea could understand them if the rumor was true.

Once again, Lea joined in, captioning one of her outfit check TikToks with: “???️?️ ( girl I ate )”

She also acknowledged the meme in replies to some comments, writing to one fan: “These are the comments I like to READ.”

And this week, Lea’s friend Emma Roberts further fanned the flames when she addressed the conspiracy on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.

The actor, who worked with Emma on Scream Queens, was asked what the “biggest misconception” that people have about Lea is — and host Andy was quick to interject.

“The biggest misconception is that she can’t read, right?” he asked.

Emma laughed awkwardly as she replied: “Well… I mean… We’ve not been in a book club together!”

As Emma tailed off, Andy’s other guest, Julie Bowen, interrupted: “Why is reading so important, god damn it! Let her not read if that’s what she wants!”

The clip was posted to TikTok and quickly went viral, with one user commenting: “the way she didnt say that lea can read….”

“WHY DOES NO ONE ANSWER,” someone else asked. Another user wrote: “the way they just dodge the question instead of saying yes or no…”

One more comment read: “I love that no one just says ‘yeah leah Michelle can read’ they’re all like ‘I mean… why wouldn’t she be able to haha’ like… what do you know”

Someone else added: “i love how everyone who has worked with lea laughs at the theory but doesn’t deny it either ??”

And one more summarized the entire situation pretty well when they concluded: “we are never going to get to the bottom of this.”