Rosie O’Donnell claimed Michelle Trachtenberg was in “pretty bad shape” months before her tragic death.
“In the last few years, when she was in pretty bad shape, she would call me and we would talk. I also called her mother to find out what was going on, and her mother told me what was happening, and how long it had been happening,” O’Donnell, 64, shared in a new interview with Variety published on Thursday, July 16. “We were supposed to see each other three or four times, and she just never showed up — sometimes at restaurants, other times at my house where we’d had someone prepare the whole meal.”
According to O’Donnell — who shared the screen with Trachtenberg in the 1996 movie Harriet the Spy — her former costar and friend was “not in good shape” but “didn’t think that she would die.”
“With most people suffering from addiction, their loved ones think that they’ll survive it, but you can die from your addiction to drugs or alcohol, and it happens too often that it must be taken seriously,” she argued. “I wish I could have done more. I tried to help her as much as I could, but she was inaccessible toward the end, and it was tragic.”
In February 2025, Trachtenberg was found unconscious inside her Midtown West Side apartment in New York City.
The New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner confirmed that her sudden death at the age of 39 was a result of complications of diabetes mellitus. According to the Mayo Clinic, diabetes mellitus refers to a “group of diseases that affect how the body uses blood sugar” a.k.a. glucose.
A source previously told Us that Trachtenberg’s health had been deteriorating for some time.
According to O’Donnell, Trachtenberg’s situation reminded her of Whitney Houston, who died in February 2012 at the age of 48 after being found unresponsive in her hotel room.
“Everyone knew what was going on, but no one was willing to say something, and often because the people that are closest to you are employed by you when you’re that big of an entity, and they don’t want to lose their job or their money,” O’Donnell claimed. “With Whitney, I did say that to her people when she didn’t show up [to The Rosie O’Donnell Show] for Cinderella. It was supposed to be a whole hour with her and Brandy, and she didn’t show up just a few minutes before the show went live. I said to them after the show, ‘This is her legacy, and if she dies it’s on your watch.’”
In her candid interview with Variety, O’Donnell acknowledged that she too has a daughter struggling with addiction. It’s an illness that many families around the world are affected by.
“It’s very serious and there are millions of families in America going through the same thing,” she added.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
