Jane Lynch Remembers 'Glee' Co-star Naya Rivera: 'She Was a Great Advocate'

Jane Lynch, who played coach Sue Sylvester on Ryan Murphy's 2009 - 2025 musical dramedy "Glee," appeared on "TODAY" to talk with host Jenna Bush Hager about her late co-star, Naya Rivera.

Calling Rivera a "force of nature" and recalling how she had effortlessly been able to learn her "three-page monologues" during the production of the popular series, Lynch - who is openly lesbian - talked about how Rivera's character having a same-sex relationship on the show provided representation for LGBTQ youth.

"She was a great advocate and loved the fact that she and Heather Morris had the lesbian relationship on the show and how much that meant to so many young people," Lynch said.

Rivera was friends with Lynch's niece Meg Doyle, who was an assistant on the production.

Doyle posted her own praises for Rivera at Instagram last month, following the tragic news of Rivera's accidental drowning in a boating accident. News reports indicated that Riviera had saved her young son but was unable to get out of the water and back into their boat.

"Anyone in Naya's crew had a feisty, witty, 110 pound bodyguard on their side," Doyle recalled in her July 13 post.

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I was an assistant on the Glee tour in 2009, and then I moved to LA in 2010 to work on set. I ran into Naya at a bar - we hadn't seen each other in a year. I didn't really have any friends in LA yet. She was wearing overalls and a bra. That's it. And she was killing it. Obviously. She said, "Let's hang out," grabbed my phone and punched her number in. And so it began. She took me under her wing. Brought me into her crew. It didn't matter that I was a lowly assistant at the time. When I think of my first four years in Los Angeles, I think of Naya. Being in Naya's presence made me feel larger than life. It was like anxious Megan absorbed Naya's fearless spirit by osmosis. When you were around her, you just . . . bloomed. Anyone in Naya's crew had a feisty, witty, 110 pound bodyguard on their side. She always had a mischievous glimmer in her eye and she always knew more than she let on. She was the rock of her family. She had a knack for seeing through someone's bullshit, and she knew if I was lying when I said I was okay. She also had a knack for dropping a filthy one-liner, exiting the room and leaving us with our jaws on the floor. She didn't know how fucking beautiful she was, but I believe she knew how talented she was, and I loved that about her. Watching Naya perform everyday, whether she was on Glee set knocking out a 3 page monologue in one take, or belting Amy Winehouse in her car, or performing a lazy striptease during our talent shows - it never grew old, she always took my breath away. People grow apart, drift in and out of your life. I always figured she would drift back into mine. Naya was a force. I feel lucky to have known and loved her. Tell your people you love them. Let shit go. Life is short.

A post shared by Meg Doyle (@meg_doyle) on Jul 13, 2020 at 4:50pm PDT

"She had a knack for seeing through someone's bullshit, and she knew if I was lying when I said I was okay," Doyle went on to add in her post. "She also had a knack for dropping a filthy one-liner, exiting the room and leaving us with our jaws on the floor."