Tatiana Schlossberg, Granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy, Reveals Terminal Cancer Diagnosis and Says Doctors Estimate Less Than a Year to Live

Bounce Nation November 23, 2025
Tatiana Schlossberg, Granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy, Reveals Terminal Cancer Diagnosis and Says Doctors Estimate Less Than a Year to Live

Tatiana Schlossberg, an environmental journalist and the granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy, revealed over the weekend that she has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. The announcement came through a deeply personal New Yorker essay titled “A Battle With My Blood,” where the 35-year-old shares the shock, fear, and hope surrounding her diagnosis.

Schlossberg disclosed that she was diagnosed a little over a year ago with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), an aggressive and rare cancer of the blood and bone marrow. Her form of AML includes a rare genetic mutation called Inversion 3, which is known for its resistance to standard chemotherapy and carries a very poor prognosis. Her doctors, she wrote, estimate she may have less than one year to live.

The daughter of Caroline Kennedy, 67—former U.S. ambassador to Australia and Japan—and designer Edwin Schlossberg, 80, Tatiana lives in New York City with her husband, physician George Moran, whose support she credits as essential during her treatment journey.

Schlossberg is pictured with Prince William, her brother, Jack Schlossberg, and her mother Caroline Kennedy in 2022.
Her illness was first suspected shortly after the birth of her daughter in 2024, when routine bloodwork revealed a low white blood cell count. What initially seemed like a pregnancy-related irregularity turned out to be a sign of leukemia. Since then, Schlossberg has endured months of hospitalizations, chemotherapy, multiple blood and bone marrow transplants—including one from her sister—participation in clinical trials, temporary remissions, and repeated relapses. During her latest clinical trial, she said, her doctor told her that he believed he could “keep [her] alive for a year, maybe.”

Tatiana is one of three children of Caroline Kennedy, alongside her siblings Rose and Jack—the only grandchildren of President Kennedy. Her essay was published on the 62nd anniversary of her grandfather’s assassination on November 22, 1963.

In her writing, Schlossberg reflects on the life she imagined before becoming ill—including plans to write a book on the world’s oceans—and on her rising concern about medical research funding, particularly during her treatment. She referenced her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s role as Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Trump administration, noting that his funding cuts have left her uneasy about the future of critical leukemia and bone-marrow research.

Schlossberg also acknowledges the long history of heartbreak in the Kennedy family: the assassinations of JFK and RFK; Ted Kennedy’s Chappaquiddick incident; and the 1999 plane crash that killed her uncle John F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. She expressed the crushing guilt she feels about adding another tragedy to her mother’s life.

“For my whole life, I have tried to be good, to be a good student and a good sister and a good daughter,” she wrote. “Now I have added a new tragedy to her life, to our family’s life, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”

Her essay offers a rare and intimate window into her struggle—a balance of fear and resilience, grief and gratitude—as she navigates a diagnosis that has reshaped every part of her life.

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