Sarah Michelle Gellar marked what would have been Michelle Trachtenberg’s 40th birthday with an Instagram tribute on October 11, sharing a throwback clip of the pair and a note that traced their relationship from meeting on All My Children to portraying sisters on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
“When you turned 16, it was hard not to still see you as the little girl I met… When you turned 21, I had to teach myself to not see you as the little sister anymore… I can’t imagine what 40 would have been like. This I know… it would be filled with love,” Gellar wrote, pairing the post with the song “See You Again.” The remembrance quickly circulated among fans who have followed their on- and off-screen bond for decades.
Trachtenberg died on February 26 at age 39 in New York. In April, the city’s medical examiner amended her cause and manner of death to natural, citing complications from diabetes mellitus after a review of lab results. The clarified ruling followed an initial undetermined finding when no autopsy was performed at the family’s request. The update prompted a new wave of public memorials for the actor, whose career spanned child stardom in Harriet the Spy to memorable television roles including Dawn Summers on Buffy and Georgina Sparks on Gossip Girl.
Gellar previously honored Trachtenberg shortly after her passing by quoting a pivotal line from Buffy’s season five finale—“The hardest thing in this world is to live in it”—a message she echoed again this weekend in spirit as she imagined the milestone Trachtenberg didn’t reach.
The birthday tribute underscored how closely audiences associate the two performers, whose sibling dynamic on screen grew from a real-life friendship that began in the 1990s and endured through later projects and public appearances. As the clip made the rounds, fans resurfaced images from awards shows and premieres, treating the post as both remembrance and celebration of a partnership that shaped a generation of genre television viewers.
