NEWSMichelle Trachtenberg Cried Over Being Bullied in Middle School, Mara Wilson Reveals Weeks After Actress' Shocking Death
Michelle Trachtenberg and Mara Wilson went to the same middle school in Burbank, Calif.
Mara Wilson is sharing her memories of late pal Michelle Trachtenberg weeks after her passing.
In a new essay published on Tuesday, March 18, the Matilda star, 37, discussed how the Gossip Girl alum — who died at age 39 — was bullied in middle school.
'There wasn’t any way she could get them not to hate her,' Mara Wilson said of the kids who bullied Michelle Trachtenberg.
The two child stars were friends at the same school in Burbank, Calif., where students allegedly thought Trachtenberg was “mean.”
Wilson recalled a conversation with her friend from the time, in which the Ice Princess star began to tear up.
“They call me Harriet the S---, Harriet the B---, Harriet the B----- Spy … and so much worse. They never stop,” Trachtenberg told her at the time.
Wilson admitted she always looked up to Trachtenberg, noting that she “had never seen [Trachtenberg] cry before” as she was often “perfectly composed and confident.”
Mara Wilson recalled people at their middle school thinking Michelle Trachtenberg was 'mean.'
“It wasn’t just that she was being bullied; it was that there wasn’t any way she could get them not to hate her,” Wilson shared.
Elsewhere in the piece, Wilson remembered the moment she learned of her confidante’s death.
The Mrs. Doubtfire actress said she “started to sob” when she heard the news.
“I was packing for a work trip,” she stated of the devastating moment. “I looked at my phone and felt my stomach drop. My hands were shaking and my knees went weak — I thought I might pass out."
Michelle Trachtenberg cried to pal Mara Wilson about the kids who bullied her in middle school.
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“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” she added. “She was too young. She’d worked too hard. I always thought I would get the chance to see her again, to tell her how much I’d always looked up to her. To tell her the times we spent together as children were some of the best of my life.”
Wilson previously shared a message about her grief on social media, writing that her “heart [was] breaking for [her] childhood friend” on Instagram.
Since Trachtenberg’s demise, her cause of death has been ruled undetermined as her family refused an autopsy, however, a source shared that she was dealing with medical issues.
They claimed she had “back issues and then bone problems, and she also fell a few times.”
Michelle Trachtenberg passed away at age 39 on February 26.
“Whenever we spoke, there was something medically wrong,” the insider said, adding that many medical issues would “get her down.”
Neighbors of the 17 Again star also shared their thoughts on how she seemed to be doing in her final days.
Ariana Rodriguez said that Trachtenberg was a “great neighbor” who was “not loud” and "smiled at everyone in the hallways,” though Rodriguez claimed she looked “less and less like herself.”
“I’m so sad that I won’t be seeing her anymore in the building. She always said hi to me,” she noted.
Another resident of the building, Rafael Williams, who lived above Trachtenberg, said he never sensed anything was wrong with her.
“Michelle always seemed happy. I never noticed anything off about her at all,” he said. “I didn’t know her personally, but she always made a point to say hi in the elevator. [Her death is] shocking to me because she didn’t seem to have a problem in the world.”
Vulture published Wilson's essay.
