Ann McGregor spoke out for the first time earlier this week and said of Leah, “I know her pain. She’s hurting too - you see the sadness.”
Cory died from a heroin and alcohol overdose in his hotel room in Vancouver, aged 31.
The actor had been battling his demons since his teens – he first overdosed when he was just 15 years old – and Ann, 63, said she believed stemmed from the fact he had little contact with his father.
“I think that was the turning point. He had a lot of emotional things he was trying to figure out – lot of it was he really wanted a relationship with his [estranged] father,” she told Good Morning America.
“I think when a child gets invalidated they keep reaching even harder — they want to find out why.”
Before his tragic death, Cory had managed to get clean and entered rehab in March last year.
Sadly however, he struggled to keep going and died of an overdose in his hotel room, in four months later.
“Until three days ago, I couldn’t look at a picture of Cory,” said Ann.
“I don’t think we have power to change the choices they’re making. I think with the kind of connection Cory and I had, if we couldn’t prevent that situation, I don’t have the answer. What could I say to them? Live every moment. Grab the second.”