Tatiana Schlossberg, granddaughter of assassinated President John F. Kennedy, is battling a rare form of leukemia and may have less than a year to live.
In an essay published Saturday in the New Yorker, the 35-year-old environmental journalist wrote that her illness was discovered in May 2024, after giving birth to her daughter. He was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia with a rare mutation known as Inversion 3 and has undergone several treatments, including chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants.
Schlossberg is the daughter of former US ambassador Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the former president, and Edwin Schlossberg. They live in New York.
In his essay, Schlossberg acknowledged that his terminal illness adds to a series of tragedies that have affected the famous in-laws. His grandfather was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. Nearly five years later, his brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, was shot to death in Los Angeles after giving a victory speech at the Ambassador Hotel following his victory in the California presidential primary. His uncle, John F. Kennedy Jr., died in 1999 when his small plane crashed.
“All my life, I have tried to be good, a good student, a good sister and a good daughter, and to protect my mother and never make her angry or upset,” Schlossberg wrote.
“Now I have added a new tragedy to his life, to our family's life, and there is nothing I can do to stop it.”
She wrote that her diagnosis was surprising. She had just turned 34, did not feel sick and was physically active, even swimming a mile one day before giving birth to her second child at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York.
After giving birth, her doctor was alarmed by her high white blood cell count.
At first, medical professionals thought the test result might be related to her pregnancy. However, doctors soon concluded that he had myeloid leukemia, a condition seen primarily in older patients. He ended up spending weeks in the hospital.
“Every doctor I saw asked me if I had spent much time at Ground Zero, given how common blood cancers are among first responders,” Schlossberg wrote. “I was in New York on 9/11, in sixth grade, but I didn't visit the site until years later.”
He has undergone various treatments. His older sister, Rose, was one of his bone marrow donors.
In the article, Schlossberg mentioned the Kennedy family's dilemma over the controversial positions taken by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his mother's cousin. Schlossberg wrote that while in the hospital in mid-2024, Kennedy suspended his risky campaign for the presidency to support then-Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Trump named Kennedy to his Cabinet as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In one of her first actions, Trump demanded a cut in government money for Columbia University, where her husband, George Moran, works.
“Doctors and scientists at Columbia, including George, did not know if they would be able to continue their research or even have jobs,” he wrote. “Suddenly, the healthcare system I relied on felt strained and shaky.”
On Saturday, his brother Jack Schlossberg, who recently announced his run for Congress in a New York district, shared on Instagram a link to his New Yorker essay, “A Battle with My Blood.”
And he added: “Life is short, let it break.”
