Tatiana Schlossberg, environmental journalist and JFK’s granddaughter, dies at 35 after terminal cancer diagnosis
By Michael Williams, CNN
(CNN) — Tatiana Schlossberg, an environmental journalist who was a granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy, died on Tuesday, her family announced. She was 35.
“Our beautiful Tatiana passed away this morning. She will always be in our hearts,” the family said in a statement posted on social media by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
Schlossberg’s death comes a month after she announced in an essay in The New Yorker that she had been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia with a rare mutation known as Inversion 3, a genetic anomaly found in less than 2% of AML cases. Doctors discovered the cancer shortly after she gave birth to her daughter in May 2024, she said.
Schlossberg detailed her diagnosis and the grueling treatment process in her essay, reflecting, “I did not—could not—believe that they were talking about me.”
“I had swum a mile in the pool the day before, nine months pregnant. I wasn’t sick. I didn’t feel sick. I was actually one of the healthiest people I knew,” she wrote.
Also a published author, Schlossberg had previously written about science and climate at The New York Times, freelanced for several publications and wrote climate-focused newsletters. Her book, “Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have,” was published in 2019.
Tuesday’s statement from the family was signed from Schlossberg’s husband, young children, parents and siblings.
She is survived by her husband, George Moran, 3-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter.
Born into one of America’s most influential political dynasties, Schlossberg was the second daughter of former US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and designer Edwin Schlossberg.
Her brother, Jack Schlossberg, is running as a Democrat to represent New York’s 12th Congressional District, and her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. serves as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Several members of her family have been critical of Kennedy’s positions as HHS secretary, including his skepticism of vaccines and other long-established medical treatments. But Tatiana Schlossberg’s illness made her denunciations even more poignant.
Recalling watching his confirmation from her hospital bed, she wrote in the essay that the health care system she had relied on “felt strained, shaky.”
Schlossberg in her essay acknowledged the series of tragedies that have befallen her family for generations, including John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 and the assassination of her great-uncle, former Attorney General and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, in 1968.
“For my whole life, I have tried to be good, to be a good student and a good sister and a good daughter, and to protect my mother and never make her upset or angry,” 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.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
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CNN’s Arlette Saenz and Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.
