Who is Tatiana Schlossberg? JFK’s granddaughter battling terminal cancer with ‘less than a year to live’

John F Kennedy’s granddaughter, Tatiana Schlossberg, has revealed she is facing terminal cancer, saying doctors have warned she may have less than a year to live. The 35-year-old journalist disclosed her diagnosis in a deeply personal essay published in The New Yorker – timed on the 62nd anniversary of her grandfather’s assassination.

Schlossberg, daughter of former US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, detailed the rapid unraveling of her health shortly after giving birth to her second child in May 2024. What began as an abnormal blood test soon led to a devastating diagnosis: acute myeloid leukaemia with a rare genetic mutation typically found in older patients. Despite multiple rounds of treatment, she said her prognosis remains grim.

Her essay, ‘A Battle With My Blood’, also reflects her distress at watching her second cousin, Robert F Kennedy Jr, ascend to the role of US health secretary under President Donald Trump while she undergoes life-saving care.

Why her diagnosis is back in focus

The essay has drawn widespread attention not only for its emotional revelations but also for its political undercurrents. Schlossberg said she watched “from my hospital bed” as RFK Jr – a prominent vaccine sceptic – was confirmed to the Cabinet post despite never having worked in medicine, public health or government.

She wrote that his decisions, including cutting major funding for mRNA vaccine research, could harm cancer patients like her. Her mother, Caroline Kennedy, had publicly urged senators not to confirm him.

A rapidly escalating illness

According to her account, Schlossberg was leading an active life – running, skiing and even swimming in the Hudson River for charity – before her diagnosis. The cancer was discovered only after childbirth, when her doctor flagged unusually high white blood cell levels.

She has since undergone chemotherapy, a bone marrow transplant using her sister’s cells, and a second stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor. Clinical trials have followed, but her outlook remains uncertain.

“During the latest clinical trial, my doctor told me that he could keep me alive for a year, maybe,” she wrote.

Her children, born in 2022 and 2024, remain at the centre of her fears: “My first thought was that my kids, whose faces live permanently on the inside of my eyelids, wouldn't remember me.”

A life marked by personal and family tragedy

Tatiana Schlossberg is part of America’s most storied political family – one shaped by both influence and loss.

Her grandfather, President John F Kennedy, was assassinated in 1963. Her uncle, John F Kennedy Jr, died in a plane crash in 1999 at age 38. Her grandmother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, died of cancer in 1994. Robert F Kennedy, father of RFK Jr, was assassinated in 1968 while running for president.

In her essay, she reflects on the pain she fears her illness will bring her mother: “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.”

Who is Tatiana Schlossberg?

Tatiana is the middle child of Caroline Kennedy and designer Edwin Schlossberg. She studied at Yale University and later earned a master’s degree in US history from the University of Oxford. A climate and environmental journalist, she is the author of ‘Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have’.

She is married to Dr George Moran, a Columbia University physician. The couple share two young children – a three-year-old son and a one-year-old daughter.

The Kennedy family remains a significant presence in US politics. Earlier this month, her brother Jack Schlossberg announced plans to run for Congress in New York. He shared his sister’s essay online with the caption: “Life is short – let it rip.”

(With inputs from AP)