JFK granddaughter shares terminal cancer diagnosis
The grandson of former US President John F. Kennedy announced that he was diagnosed with an aggressive type of cancer.
Tatiana Schlossberg said she was given less than a year to live.
The 35-year-old shared the news in an article published in The New Yorker on Saturday, the 62nd anniversary of his grandfather’s assassination.
The climate journalist, a mother of two, has been an outspoken opponent of her relative Robert F Kennedy Jr’s position as US health secretary under President Donald Trump.
In her essay, Schlossberg describes her anxiety at watching her second cousin get confirmed for office while struggling with her illness.
Schlossberg is the daughter of designer Edwin Schlossberg and diplomat Caroline Kennedy. He is the grandson of John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
According to Schlossberg’s article, War on My Blood, she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia after giving birth in May 2024.
He described his previously healthy lifestyle, which included running, skiing and once even swimming in New York’s Hudson River “eerily to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.”
He said despite treatment, including a bone marrow transplant and chemotherapy, doctors told him the outcome did not look good.
“During the most recent clinical trial, my doctor said it could keep me alive for maybe a year,” he writes.
“My first thought was that my children, whose faces live permanently inside my eyelids, would not remember me.”
Schlossberg’s son was born in 2022 and her daughter was born in 2024.
Schlossberg, whose uncle John F. Kennedy Jr. died in a plane crash at the age of 38 and whose grandmother Jacqueline died of cancer when Schlossberg was a baby, also explains that he is afraid of the pain his death will cause to his mother, who previously served as the US ambassador to Australia and Japan.
“All my life I tried to be good, to be a good student, a good sister and a good daughter, to protect my mother and never make her sad or angry,” she writes.
“Now I’ve added another tragedy to her life, to our family’s life, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”
He also described his sadness at watching his second cousin, known as RFK Jr. (whose father, Robert F. Kennedy, was also assassinated while running for president) become Trump’s health secretary.
“I watched from my hospital bed as Bobby was approved for this position, against logic and common sense, even though he had never worked in medicine, public health, or government,” he writes.
“Suddenly the healthcare system I relied on felt strained and shaky.”
Earlier this month, his brother Jack Schlossberg announced that he plans to run for Congress in New York.
He shared his article online on Saturday with the headline: “Life is short – let it rip.”
The Kennedy family’s involvement in U.S. politics across generations—along with the personal tragedy that frequently afflicted its members—gave it significant stature in American life.
