While Jonathan Groff’s most famous relationship is arguably his longtime friendship with Lea Michele, the actor has also had some romantic partners that fans may or may not know about. Groff tends to lay low for the most part, but in HBO’s 2022 “Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known” documentary, he opened up about how starring alongside Michele in the Broadway musical helped him really come to terms with his sexuality.
“Lea and I, we were grasping onto each other, we were really in love,” he explained. “Coming from a religious background surrounded by the Amish, I felt . . . ashamed of who I was. I guess I was also afraid that if people knew who I was, they wouldn’t find what I was doing believable.”
In the doc, Groff also explained how Michele helped him gain enough confidence to come out as gay, which he did in 2008, just one month after they both exited “Spring Awakening.” However, before that, Michele recalled how she had fallen in love with Groff. “I was so in love with him,” she said. “Finally, I cornered him at a party, and I said to him, ‘Why don’t you love me? Just love me. Why can’t you love me? Date me. Love me.’ And I just saw this look in his eyes, and in that moment, I knew. I realized in that moment, ‘This is the end.’ And I need to protect this. This is intense.”
“And I never asked him again about his sexuality, and it was sort of this . . . I think he felt safe with me because he knew that I knew and that we could be best friends,” she added. “And our relationship just grew and grew to the point that we would do the show and then we would go home together. That’s why Jonathan and I became so close. We were so intertwined.”
While it’s clear Groff’s love for Michele runs deep, keep reading to learn more about the actor’s dating history over the years.