Lea Michele with son Ever. Courtesy of Lea Michele/Instagram
Her most prized possessions. Lea Michele keeps her valuables in a safe, but there are only two things she has worth locking up: a lock of her 2-year-old son Ever’s hair and a note from Barbra Streisand.
The Glee alum, 36, opened up about getting a letter of approval from the original Funny Girl star during her Friday, January 13, appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Michele took over the role of Fanny Bryce in Broadway’s Funny Girl revival in September 2022.
“I cried, I filmed myself opening it. It literally was a gold envelope. It flew in on doves,” Michele joked to Fallon, 48.
When the host questioned where the letter is now, Michele revealed it has a special place next to son Ever’s hair.
“It was so incredible, and now everyone’s like, ‘Are you gonna frame it? What are you going to do with it?’ I actually just — I put it in my safe at home,” Michele explained. “The only thing I have in my safe is a letter from Barbra Streisand and my son’s, the first hair we cut from his hair cut. So it’s my son’s hair and a letter from Barbra Streisand, and that’s where it’s gonna stay.”
Michele gave birth to son Ever Leo, her first child with husband Zandy Reich, in August 2020. “Being a mom is one of the greatest gifts and I love being Ever’s mom. It was so special making my lullaby album [Forever, released in November 2021] as a tribute to him,” the Scream Queens alum exclusively told Us Weekly in May 2022. “I wanted to sing songs that were special and important to me that had special meanings behind them. Those songs were songs that I listen to when I first found out I was pregnant and it’s so beautiful to get to sing them for my son now.”
Barbra Streisand Kristina Bumphrey/Starpix/Shutterstock
However, her little guy is particular about which songs she performs for him. “I sing for him every night before he goes to sleep. He loves when I sing for him but he’s very picky on the song choice,” the New Jersey native explained, adding that his favorite songs are “Twinkle, Twinkle” and “Happy Birthday.”
Michele’s musical tastes, however, lean more contemporary. “I love singing ‘Here Comes The Sun’ [by The Beatles] and ‘Yellow’ by Coldplay to him,” she said.
The Brunette Ambition author is very open her experiences as a mom, but she wants to keep her letter from Streisand private. “It was a beautiful, hand-written note that I will cherish. She was incredibly complimentary,” Michele told Town & Country last month. “It exists. It happened, and now I feel like so many dreams can come true.”
She added, “She was an icon for me in my life.”