Tatiana Schlossberg, an environmental journalist and author, the daughter of Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg, and granddaughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, reveals that she has terminal cancer.
In an essay published in the New Yorker titled, ‘A Battle with my Blood,’ Schlossberg revealed that in May of 2024, hours after giving birth to her second child and daughter, her doctors noticed her white blood cell count was abnormally high.
“A normal white-blood-cell count is around four to eleven thousand cells per microlitre,” Schlossberg wrote. “Mine was a hundred and thirty-one thousand cells per microlitre.”
She was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, with a rare mutation called Inversion 3. The diagnosis is primarily common in older people, or has been found recently to be a common diagnosis among 9/11 first responders.
Schlossenberg underwent numerous rounds of chemotherapy and had to undergo multiple bone marrow transplants. The first one came from her sister, the second from an unknown donor. Schlossenberg said that eventually her cancer came back, with her transplant doctor saying that leukemia with her mutation “liked to come back.”
Eventually, she joined a clinical trial, and after completing her latest one, her doctor told her that he could keep her alive for maybe a year.
In her essay, she criticizes her cousin, United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., calling him “an embarrassment to [Schlossberg] and the rest of [her] immediate family.”
“I watched as Bobby cut nearly a half billion dollars for research into mRNA vaccines, technology that could be used against certain cancers; slashed billions in funding from the National Institutes of Health, the world’s largest sponsor of medical research; and threatened to oust the panel of medical experts charged with recommending preventive cancer screenings," Schlossberg wrote.
Schlossenberg wrote on to say that had she not gotten sick, she planned to write about the destruction and offerings of the ocean.
She also went on to praise her husband, George Moran, who has helped raise her children, alongside the help of her siblings, Ross and Jack, and their parents.
“George did everything for me that he possibly could. He talked to all the doctors and insurance people that I didn’t want to talk to; he slept on the floor of the hospital; he didn’t get mad when I was raging on steroids and yelled at him that I did not like Schweppes ginger ale, only Canada Dry,” she said. “He is perfect, and I feel so cheated and so sad that I don’t get to keep living the wonderful life I had with this kind, funny, handsome genius I managed to find.”
She concluded her essay by trying to focus on the time she has to spend with her children.
“Mostly, I try to live and be with them now. But being in the present is harder than it sounds, so I let the memories come and go. So many of them are from my childhood that I feel as if I’m watching myself and my kids grow up at the same time.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
©2025 Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/7QOJU3BNCJERBNKJC5LWTBYFLU.png)
