John F. Kennedy’s granddaughter revealed Saturday that she has terminal cancer, writing in an essay in “The New Yorker” that one of her doctors said she might live for about another year and criticizing policies pushed by her cousin, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Tatiana Schlossberg, the daughter of Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg, said she was diagnosed in May 2024 at the age of 34. After the birth of her second child, her doctor noticed that her white blood cell count was high. It turned out to be acute myeloid leukemia with a rare mutation, seen mainly in older people.
His essay was published on the 62nd anniversary of his grandfather’s assassination.
Schlossberg, an environmental journalist, wrote that she underwent rounds of chemotherapy and two stem cell transplants, the first using cells from her sister and the next from an unrelated donor, and that she participated in clinical trials. At the last trial, she wrote, her doctor told her “he could keep me alive for a year, maybe.”
Schlossberg also said policies supported by RFK could harm cancer patients like her. Caroline Kennedy urged senators to reject her confirmation.
“As I spent more and more of my life in the care of doctors, nurses, and researchers striving to improve the lives of others, I watched as Bobby cut nearly half a billion dollars for research into mRNA vaccines, a technology that could be used against certain cancers,” the essay reads.
Schlossberg wrote about her fears that her daughter and son would not remember her. She feels cheated and sad that she cannot continue to live “the wonderful life” she had with her husband, George Moran. While her parents and brothers and sisters try to hide their pain from her, she says she feels it every day.
“All my life I tried to be good, to be a good student, a good sister and a good daughter, and to protect my mother and never upset her or make her angry,” she said. “Now I have added new tragedy to his life, to our family’s life, and there is nothing I can do to stop it.”
