Tatiana Schlossberg, the granddaughter of former US president John F Kennedy, has died at the age of 35, months after revealing she had been diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer.
Her death was announced on Tuesday by the John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, which shared a message from her family on social media.
“Our beautiful Tatiana passed away this morning. She will always be in our hearts,” the statement read.
Family Confirms Death in Emotional Statement
The message announcing Schlossberg’s passing was signed by multiple members of her family, including her husband George Moran and her children’s names listed alongside relatives.
Schlossberg was the daughter of Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg, and a great-granddaughter of the Kennedy political dynasty.
Despite her public background, she spent much of her adult life working as a journalist rather than in politics.
Rare Cancer Diagnosis Revealed Months Earlier
In November, Schlossberg published a deeply personal essay in The New Yorker titled A Battle With My Blood, in which she revealed she had been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia with a rare mutation.
The cancer, which affects the blood and bone marrow, left her with a prognosis of less than a year to live.
“I did not – could not – believe that they were talking about me,” she wrote of hearing the heartbreaking moment she heard the diagnosis.
“I wasn’t sick. I didn’t feel sick. I was actually one of the healthiest people I knew.”
She explained that she had gone swimming the day before, while nine months pregnant, and had shown no signs that anything was wrong.
Diagnosed Shortly After Giving Birth
Schlossberg said she learned of her diagnosis shortly after giving birth to her second child in May 2024. She shared two children with her husband, George Moran.
She wrote candidly about undergoing treatment while adjusting to life with a newborn, describing the emotional weight of facing a life-threatening illness at the same time as becoming a mother again.
Career as Journalist and Climate Writer
A Yale graduate with a master’s degree from Oxford, Schlossberg previously worked as a climate reporter for the New York Times.
She also contributed to publications including the Atlantic, the Washington Post and Vanity Fair, and was widely respected for her reporting on environmental issues.
Criticism of Health Policy in Final Essay
In her New Yorker essay, Schlossberg also addressed her cousin, Robert F Kennedy Jr, criticising his role as secretary of health and human services and the impact of policies she said had affected patients like herself.
She wrote that she strongly opposed his anti-vaccine views and criticised cuts to medical research funding, particularly funding linked to mRNA technology that could be used in cancer treatment.
“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.
She also expressed concern about cuts to the National Institutes of Health and uncertainty faced by doctors at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, where she was receiving care.
Reflections on Time, Memory and Her Children
Toward the end of her essay, Schlossberg reflected on how she was spending the time she had left, writing about her desire to remain present with her children while accepting how difficult that could be.
“I try to live and be with them now,” she wrote.
“But being in the present is harder than it sounds, so I let the memories come and go. I will keep trying to remember.”
Schlossberg is survived by her husband, her three-year-old son, and her one-year-old daughter.