Environmental journalist Tatiana Schlossberg, a granddaughter of the late U.S. president John F. Kennedy, has passed away at the age of 35. Schlossberg, the daughter of Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg, shared her battle with terminal cancer in a November 2025 essay published in The New Yorker. The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation announced her death in a statement posted on social media.
Schlossberg was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in May 2024 at 34 years old, shortly after the birth of her second child. Her elevated white blood cell count led to the diagnosis of a rare mutation of the disease typically found in older individuals. She detailed her journey undergoing chemotherapy, two stem cell transplants, and involvement in clinical trials in her New Yorker essay titled “A Battle With My Blood.” Despite medical efforts, her doctor predicted she might live for about a year.
In her essay, Schlossberg criticized health policies advocated by her mother’s cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, expressing concerns about their potential impact on cancer patients like herself. She highlighted a significant reduction in funding for mRNA vaccine research, a technology with potential applications in certain cancers.
Prior to her illness, Schlossberg had a successful career as a climate change and environmental reporter for the New York Times. Her book, “Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have,” received the Rachel Carson environment book award from the Society of Environmental Journalists in 2020.
Schlossberg expressed sadness in her essay about the thought of her children not remembering her and the loss of the life she had with her husband, George Moran. Despite her family’s efforts to conceal their pain, she felt their sorrow daily.
Caroline Kennedy, Schlossberg’s mother, experienced multiple tragedies, including the assassinations of her father John F. Kennedy in 1963 and her uncle Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. Additionally, her brother, John F. Kennedy Jr., died in a plane crash in 1999 along with his wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren Bessette.
