JFK’s Granddaughter, Tatiana Schlossberg, Reveals Terminal Cancer Diagnosis

NEW YORK — Tatiana Schlossberg, the granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy and daughter of Caroline Kennedy, has revealed that she is battling terminal cancer. In a deeply personal essay published in The New Yorker on November 22—the 62nd anniversary of her grandfather’s assassination—the 35-year-old journalist disclosed that she has been diagnosed with an aggressive, rare form of leukemia and has been given roughly a year to live.

Schlossberg, an environmental reporter and author, said her life changed suddenly in May 2024, just hours after delivering her second child. Routine post-delivery blood work showed her white blood cell count had soared to 131,000 cells per microliter—a life-threatening abnormality compared to the normal range of 4,000 to 11,000.

“I did not—could not—believe that they were talking about me,” she wrote in the essay titled “A Battle With My Blood.” “I had swum a mile in the pool the day before, nine months pregnant. I wasn’t sick. I didn’t feel sick.”

A Rare and Aggressive Diagnosis

Doctors diagnosed Schlossberg with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) marked by a mutation known as Inversion 3—a condition typically found in much older adults and notoriously resistant to standard treatments. Since her diagnosis, she has undergone intense chemotherapy, two bone-marrow transplants—one from her sister, Rose Schlossberg, and one from an anonymous donor—and cutting-edge immunotherapies including CAR-T cell treatment.

Despite brief periods of remission, the cancer has repeatedly returned. During a recent clinical trial, her doctor delivered the prognosis she now lives with: “He could keep me alive for a year, maybe.”

A New Tragedy for a Family Long Marked by Loss

The news marks another painful chapter in the Kennedy family’s storied but tragedy-filled history. Schlossberg expressed deep guilt and sorrow over the emotional toll her illness has taken on her mother, Caroline Kennedy, who serves as the U.S. Ambassador to Australia.

“For my whole life, I have tried to be good… and to protect my mother and never make her upset or angry,” she wrote. “Now I have added a new tragedy to her life, to our family’s life, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”

Her siblings, Rose and Jack, and her husband, George Moran, have remained by her bedside throughout months of hospitalizations. She recounted how Moran slept on the hospital floor and managed every logistical challenge so she could focus solely on staying alive.

Criticism of RFK Jr.’s Health Policies

In the essay, Schlossberg also used her platform to criticize her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has risen to national prominence in health policy circles.

She expressed alarm over his skepticism of vaccines and his proposals to slash medical research funding, noting that mRNA vaccine research is foundational for developing treatments like the ones keeping her alive.

“As I spent more and more of my life under the care of doctors, nurses, and researchers striving to improve the lives of others, I watched as Bobby cut nearly a half billion dollars for research into mRNA vaccines,” she wrote. The policies, she said, left her “uneasy” about the stability of the health systems she now depends on.

Living for Her Children

Schlossberg and her husband share two young children—a three-year-old son and a one-year-old daughter. She wrote that her thoughts now revolve almost entirely around them: the future she will not see, the milestones she will miss, and the memories she hopes they will keep.

She also lamented the unwritten books she will leave behind, including a planned project on ocean conservation.

“Mostly, I try to live and be with them now,” she wrote. “Sometimes I trick myself into thinking I’ll remember this forever, I’ll remember this when I’m dead. Obviously, I won’t. But since I don’t know what death is like… I’ll keep pretending.”