The Independent's journalism is supported by our readers. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn commission.
- Lifestyle
Doctors have told Schlossberg she has a year to live
Inga Parkelin New YorkSaturday 22 November 2025 16:32 GMTComments
CloseRelated: Kennedy heir Jack Schlossberg running for Congress to fight Trump
Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more
Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more
Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more
Email*SIGN UPI would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice
Tatiana Schlossberg, the granddaughter of former President John F. Kennedy, has disclosed she has terminal cancer.
In a poignant essay, “A Battle with My Blood,” written for The New Yorker, the 35-year-old daughter of Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg revealed she received the diagnosis after giving birth to her daughter in May 2024. She and her husband, George Moran, also have a three-year-old son.
“My doctor noticed that my blood count looked strange. A normal white-blood-cell count is around four to eleven thousand cells per microlitre. Mine was a hundred and thirty-one thousand cells per microlitre,” she wrote.
“It could just be something related to pregnancy and delivery, the doctor said, or it could be leukemia,” she recalled. She was eventually diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, with a rare mutation called Inversion 3.
“I could not be cured by a standard course of treatment,” she said, listing the extensive treatment she would have to undergo, including a few months of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, followed by more regular chemo to “try and prevent the cancer from returning.”
open image in galleryTatiana Schlossberg has been diagnosed with terminal cancer (Getty Images for goop)
open image in galleryPrince William, left, meets siblings Jack and Tatiana Schlossberg and their mother, Caroline Kennedy, in 2022 (AFP via Getty Images)After the initial rounds of chemo, she received a stem cell transplant from her older sister, Rose, who was a match. The transplant was a success and put her in remission, but before long, she relapsed. Her doctor told her that her rare form of cancer “liked to come back.”
Schlossberg entered several different clinical trials. However, “during the latest clinical trial, my doctor told me that he could keep me alive for a year, maybe,” she said.
She went on to address her mother’s first cousin, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to cut important vaccine funding, writing: “As I spent more and more of my life under the care of doctors, nurses, and researchers striving to improve the lives of others, I watched as Bobby cut nearly a half billion dollars for research into mRNA vaccines, technology that could be used against certain cancers.”
Schlossberg continued: “My parents and my brother and sister, too, have been raising my children and sitting in my various hospital rooms almost every day for the last year and a half.
“They have held my hand unflinchingly while I have suffered, trying not to show their pain and sadness in order to protect me from it. This has been a great gift, even though I feel their pain every day.”
As well as her sister Rose, 37, Schlossberg has a brother, Jack, 32 — JFK’s only grandson — who recently announced his intention to run for New York’s 12th congressional district.
The Kennedy family has been hit with a series of tragedies over the past 70 years. Schlossberg’s article in The New Yorker was published on the 62nd anniversary of her grandfather, President John F. Kennedy, being assassinated in Dallas, Texas. His brother, former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Los Angeles in 1968 while campaigning for the White House.
JFK’s son John F. Kennedy Jr. was killed in a plane crash in 1999 along with his wife, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and her sister, Lauren Bessette. Mary Richardson Kennedy, wife of RFK Jr., died from suicide in 2016; Saoirse Kennedy Hill, RFK’s granddaughter, died of a drug overdose in 2019; and Maeve Kennedy McKean, another granddaughter of RFK, died with her eight-year-old son Gideon during a canoeing trip in 2020.
More about
JFKRobert F Kennedy JrJoin our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments
