In the lead-up to her death, Michelle Trachtenberg was ‘thrown a lot of curveballs’ when it came to her health.
In February the Gossip Girl and Buffy the Vampire Slayer star was found dead aged 39 at her apartment in New York.
Although her family had requested an autopsy not be performed because of religious reasons – they are Orthodox Jews – it was announced yesterday that she had died due to complications from diabetes mellitus.
Despite no autopsy being conducted, the medical examiner’s office was able to determine her cause of death through a review of laboratory test results.
Although she never spoke publicly about her health battles, a friend recently revealed that Trachtenberg had faced ‘back issues and bone problems and fell a few times’.
In 2019 the actress appeared on a red carpet with a cane and two years later shared a photo of her badly bruised ankle on social media.
After making starring in commercials from when she was just three years old, Michelle made her TV debut in Nickelodeon’s The Adventures of Pete & Pete in 1994, with her first film role in Harriet the Spy the next year.
She went on to find fame appearing in Buffy and Gossip Girl, returning for the reboot in 2022.
However, in recent years she began to retreat from the spotlight, with fans noticing and commenting on her changing appearance on social media.
In January last year she shared a series of posts hitting back at ‘haters’.
‘I’ve received several comments recently about my appearance. I have never had plastic surgery. I am happy and healthy. Check yourself haters,’ she posted on Instagram.
Paramount/ Kobal/ Shutterstock)
A week later she shared a selfie, captioning it: ‘Fun fact. This is my face. Not malnutrition no problems. Why do you have [to] hate? Get a calendar.’
Her comments came after some fans questioned if she was ‘sick’ after expressing concern over her ‘thinning hair and eyes’.
Although she never spoke publicly about her health battles, last month a friend told US Weekly that ‘whenever they spoke there was something medically wrong’ with the actress.
What is diabetes mellitus?
Diabetes is a condition that causes a person’s blood sugar level to become too high. There are 2 main types of diabetes:
- type 1 diabetes – a lifelong condition where the body’s immune system attacks and destroys the cells that produce insulin
- type 2 diabetes – where the body does not produce enough insulin, or the body’s cells do not react to insulin properly
Type 2 diabetes is far more common than type 1. In the UK, over 90% of all adults with diabetes have type 2.
The NHS states that if you’re diagnosed with diabetes, you’ll need to eat healthily, take regular exercise and have regular checks including blood tests.
Following her death sources said she’d had a liver transplant months earlier.
‘She was very open with those close to her about having the transplant,” says the friend, “but she never went into detail,’ a friend said.
Trachtenberg was also said to have spent a prolonged period in hospital around the same time.
Another source told the same publication: ‘The last time I saw her, something felt off. You could sense something was going on. She was really frail and had been sick for a while.’
Following Trachtenberg’s death, her Harriet the Spy co-star Rosie O’Donnell said that she had ‘struggled the last few years’.
In an Instagram tribute, photographer and journalist Amanda de Cadenet revealed Trachtenberg had also recently video called her from a hospital bed and was aware she was gravely ill.
‘Even though you did not look like you, your sweetness and humour were still alive. You knew that death was a high possibility, and I am only sorry that the outcome was not a better one,’ she wrote.
In the past year friends said she’d looked ‘pale, gaunt and very thin’.
‘She was very open with those close to her about having the transplant, but she never went into detail,’ a friend said.
When news of her death broke, a representative for Trachtenberg confirmed that it was ‘with great sadness to confirm she has passed away’.
‘The family requests privacy for their loss. There are no further details at this time,’ they said.
Soon after several of her former co-stars paid tribute, including Buffy’s Sarah Michelle Gellar, Gossip Girl’s Blake Lively, Ed Westwick and Chace Crawford and Princess Eugenie, who was close friends with the actress.
At the time of her death, she’d been in a relationship with her agent, Jay Cohen, for five years.
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