Inside Naya Rivera's Relationship With Demi Lovato

It's not just the fans of Glee cast member Naya Rivera who have been devastated by her disappearance and the news that the actress's 4-year-old son, Josey, was found alone on a pontoon boat (thankfully uninjured), his mother nowhere in sight — celebrities and castmates are also reeling. Fellow former Glee star Demi Lovato posted on her Instagram stories (via People), "Please pray for @nayarivera to be found safe and sound." Lovato had played Dani, the love interest of Rivera's character, Santana, in season five of the show (per IMDb). 

Instagram isn't the only social media platform where Lovato has spoken out about Rivera's disappearance. She also asked her 55.4 million Twitter followers to join her in "manifesting" that her former Glee co-star be found alive. "I don't tweet often but sometimes my tweets come true so, together let's manifest on twitter that Naya will be found safe and sound!! Come on y'all! Let's put this energy out there: they will find her healthy and alive!!" she tweeted on July 9. Reaction to her pleas for hope has been overwhelming, with the post receiving more than 25,000 retweets and comments and over 140,000 likes within hours of the post going live.

Many Twitter users responded to Lovato with a sort of chant, repeating the words, "Naya Rivera will be found alive and healthy" multiple times. One fan added, "She's a mother, she's a daughter, she's a cousin, she's a friend, she's a person. don't stop looking for Naya..." Others tweeted that Lovato's words of hope moved them to tears. "wait honestly this made me tear up. we know how you feel about this app and the fact you came on here to spread light and love for naya.. thank you, we love you."

Update: The Ventura County Sheriff's Department has confirmed that the body of Naya Rivera, 33, has been recovered, as reported by People on July 13. "We are confident the body we found is that of Naya Rivera," Ventura County Sheriff Bill Ayub said at a news conference. "It has been an extremely difficult time for her family throughout this ordeal ... our hearts are with them and we share in their grief for Naya's loss."

While not too much is known about how close Lovato and Rivera were behind the scenes, one thing is clear: The two have always been encouraging and supportive of each other, even dating back to before they appeared on Glee. On Twitter in 2013, before their season together began, Rivera tweeted, "Just bought @ddlovato version of 'give your heart a break' because of Glee. I love this song, her voice is so cool!"

The year their romance dominated Glee's storyline, 2013, was also a year when Lovato was topping charts with her album, "Demi." Rivera said was grateful to have some of Lovato's glitter rub off on her. "I mean, she's playing my love interest, so I'm very, very excited about that," Rivera had told MTV News while they were in production. "We get to sing a song together. It's gonna be good. I'm excited to work with her."

Lovato returned the favor a few months later when Rivera's single, "Sorry," debuted, reaching out to let her know how much she loved the track. "She texted me two days ago and was like, 'Your song, like, I'm obsessed. ... Will you send it to me?'" Rivera told Yahoo "I was like, 'No way — you know good music. That's such a good compliment.'" In addition to this personal outreach, Lovato gave Rivera a shout-out on Twitter, also, tweeting, "Obsessed with my girlfriend's song 'sorry' out today!!! Love you @NayaRivera."

Meanwhile, Lovato said she was proud to represent an LGBTQ character at a time when the community wasn't often represented on mainstream television. "What I want people to take away from this isn't, 'Oh my god, Demi is kissing a girl, like this is crazy' or whatever; I want people to take from it [that] this is actually an incredible step in our generation today where I'm able to play a young lesbian on prime time TV," Lovato had said in an interview with Ryan Seacrest (per MTV). "It's becoming the norm and I'm honored to be able to be hopefully inspiring people with my character to be who they are and not be afraid or ashamed."

There's also been speculation that Lovato's 2015 hit, "Cool For Summer," thought to be about a relationship between women (per After Ellen), may actually have been inspired by the romance between characters Santana and Dani. Teen Vogue noted a number of connections between the two — Rivera's autobiography is entitled, "Sorry Not Sorry," the same name as Lovato's breakout hit track, after all — and wondered if the duo's on-screen chemistry had been the inspiration for this racy song as well.