Lea Michele has broken her silence over accusations she bullied co-stars on the set of Glee.

Allegations about the actress/singer's behaviour while filming the U.S. TV programme have been swirling for years, with Naya Rivera detailing her experiences in her 2016 book Sorry Not Sorry.

But when Lea tweeted her support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd at the hands of white police officers last week, her former co-star Samantha Ware hit back by accusing the screen star of making her life "a living hell" on the set, and even claimed she once threatened to "s**t in her wig".

Following Samantha's tweet, numerous Glee stars came forward to validate her story, with Dabier Snell and Alex Newell backing up her claims, while Amber Riley and Melissa Benoist both weighed in by "liking" tweets about the scandal.

Now, Lea has opened up about the claims in a post uploaded to her Instagram page.

"One of the most important lessons of the last few weeks is that we need to take the time to listen and learn about other people's perspectives and any role we have played or anything we can do to help address the injustices that they face," she began. "When I tweeted the other day, it was meant to be a show of support for our friends and neighbours and communities of colour during this really difficult time, but the responses I received to what I posted have made me also focus specifically on how my own behaviour towards fellow cast members was perceived by them. While I don't remember ever making this specific statement and I have never judged others by their background or colour of their skin, that's not really the point. What matters is that I clearly acted in ways which hurt other people."

Lea went on apologise for her behaviour and insisted she would be seeking to "grow" as a person.

"Whether it was my privileged position and perspective that caused me to be perceived as insensitive or inappropriate at times or whether it was just my immaturity and me just being unnecessarily difficult, I apologise for my behaviour and for any pain which I have caused," the 33-year-old continued. "We all can grow and change and I have definitely used these past several months to reflect on my own shortcomings."

Lea, who is currently expecting her first child with husband Zandy Reich, also noted that she will use the experience to work on herself ahead of giving birth.

"I am a couple of months from becoming a mother and I know I need to keep working to better myself and take responsibility for my actions, so that I can be a real role model for my child and so I can pass along my lessons and mistakes, so that they can learn from me," she concluded. "I listened to these criticisms and I am learning and while I am very sorry, I will be better in the future from this experience."

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