Tatiana Schlossberg, journalist, author, and granddaughter of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, has publicly revealed that she is living with terminal acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In an essay published in The New Yorker, the 35-year-old writer shared that her physicians have told her she is likely to have less than one year to live.
Tatiana Schlossberg, the daughter of Caroline Kennedy and designer Edwin Schlossberg, learned of her diagnosis shortly after giving birth to her second child in May 2024. Despite intensive therapy, including chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, her disease has continued to progress.
Diagnosis Following Childbirth
In her essay titled A Battle With My Blood, Tatiana Schlossberg describes the shock that followed her diagnosis. She had maintained an active lifestyle throughout her pregnancy and reported feeling well, noting that she had swum a mile just a day before her diagnosis.
She wrote that she had no reason to suspect illness, illustrating the abrupt and devastating nature of AML, an aggressive hematologic malignancy. Her reflections center not only on her own experience, but on the emotional toll of the disease on her young family. Schlossberg’s son was born in 2022, and her daughter in 2024. She expressed deep anguish about the possibility that her children may grow up without memories of her.
Treatment Challenges and Limited Prognosis
Despite undergoing standard and advanced treatments, including participation in a clinical trial, her therapeutic options remain limited. According to her treating physician, the current goal of therapy is to prolong her life for as long as safely possible.
Schlossberg recounts her experience with profound honesty, describing the hope associated with each new treatment attempt and the uncertainty that defines life with a refractory hematologic cancer.
Criticism of Federal Health and Research Policies
In her essay, Schlossberg also addresses the broader political context surrounding her illness. She reflects on her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and his role as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services under the Trump administration.
She voices concern about policies she believes have negatively affected medical research and patient care, citing cuts to mRNA vaccine research and reductions in funding for the National Institutes of Health. She notes that these decisions have had direct consequences for institutions such as NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, where she is receiving treatment.
Tatiana Schlossberg describes watching her cousin’s confirmation from her hospital bed, expressing dismay at the appointment of a health secretary with no background in medicine, public health, or government.
A Family Marked by Public Service and Private Loss
Tatiana Schlossberg’s story adds another tragic chapter to the Kennedy family’s long history of loss. Her uncle, John F. Kennedy Jr., died in a plane crash at the age of 38. Her grandmother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, died of cancer when Schlossberg was a toddler.
In her essay, she reflects on the pain her diagnosis brings to her mother, Caroline Kennedy, who has served as U.S. ambassador to Japan and Australia. She describes a lifelong desire to protect her mother from grief, now confronted by a reality she cannot change.
A Public Essay Met With Support
Her brother, Jack Schlossberg, recently announced plans to run for Congress in New York. He shared her essay with the caption, “Life is short – let it rip,” underscoring the urgency and candor of Tatiana’s message.
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Written by Nare Hovhannisyan, MD