Cory Monteith's Body Cremated, Father Not Invited To Private Viewing

Cory Monteith's body was cremated Tuesday after a private viewing with his mother, brother, and girlfriend Lea Michele.

The viewing was held in a hospital in Vancouver on Tuesday after Cory's body was released to his mother, Ann McGregor. She, Michele and Cory's older brother Shaun viewed the body before McGregor decided to have it cremated. Cory's father Joe Monteith, who has been divorced from McGregor since Cory was young, was not invited, and was told of the cremation after the fact.

Joe was reportedly devastated about not getting a chance to pay his respects. "I've always loved both my sons and am going to miss Cory very, very much," Joe told TMZ. "I'm saddened at the fact that I couldn't have been there to see my son before he was cremated." He added that he was "shocked" about his son's cause of death.

Joe had been estranged from his son through much of his young life and reached out to Cory after he won the role of Finn Hudson on Glee, the show that launched him to fame. Despite their distance, the two rekindled their father-son relationship in late 2009 after 17 years apart. "We’d spoken maybe three or four times [during that period]" Cory told Parade in 2011. "He reached out to me on Facebook. I couldn’t shut the door, so I got on a plane. He greeted me at the airport, and [he and Monteith’s stepmother] were so happy they were almost crying. It was a good time. At some point, you realize your parents are human. They make the best decisions they can with the options available to them.”

Cory was found dead in his Vancouver hotel room on July 13. His cause of death was ruled an accidental overdose – the coroners found a fatal mixture of heroin and alcohol in his system. Cory struggled with drug addiction from the age of 13, attending rehab when he was 19 years old as well as this past April. He was 31.

— Ava Butler