Tatiana Schlossberg Reveals Terminal Cancer Diagnosis at Age 35

21 November 2025

Tatiana Schlossberg, the 35-year-old daughter of Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg, has publicly disclosed that she has been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and has been told by her doctors that she likely has less than a year to live.

In an essay published in The New Yorker titled “A Battle with My Blood,” Schlossberg recounts how she learned of the diagnosis in May 2024, just hours after the birth of her daughter. A routine blood test revealed her white-blood-cell count was 131,000 cells per microliter well above the normal range of four to eleven thousand prompting further investigation and eventually the diagnosis of this aggressive form of leukemia.

At the time of diagnosis Schlossberg was pregnant and active, having recently swum a mile in a pool and completed extensive athletic endeavours. “I wasn’t sick. I didn’t feel sick,” she wrote. Her physical condition prior to the diagnosis stood in sharp contrast to the crisis she now faces.

Treatments have been intensive. Schlossberg underwent chemotherapy, a bone-marrow transplant, and entered a clinical trial for CAR-T‐cell therapy a form of immunotherapy in which T-cells are engineered to attack cancer cells. Despite these efforts, she reports her medical team has informed her that traditional treatment cannot cure her due to a rare genetic mutation known as Inversion 3, and that she has been given an estimated one year to live.

In her essay she writes poignantly about her children, her husband, George Moran, and the extended family who have rallied around her including her parents and siblings Jack Schlossberg and Rose Schlossberg. She expressed how difficult it has been to face the knowledge of her prognosis and to see the pain behind the protective faces of her loved ones. “Mostly, I try to live and be with them now,” she writes. “But being in the present is harder than it sounds.”

Beyond personal reflection the essay includes pointed criticism of her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, for his policies including cuts to funding for medical research into mRNA technology and cancer-relevant trials. Schlossberg connects her own treatment journey to broader systemic concerns, questioning how policy decisions affect patients like her who are reliant on advanced therapies.

This disclosure arrives amid a lineage of grief in the Kennedy family and adds to the sense of fragility faced by one of America’s most prominent political families. The announcement also serves as a reminder of the real-life stakes involved in cancer research, healthcare policy and the lived experience of patients confronting terminal illness.

For Schlossberg, who has written for major publications and previously served as an environmental reporter, this is not just a health update it is a reckoning with identity, mortality and the legacy she will leave for her children. She writes about memories flooding in, the challenge of being present and the wish to compile moments rather than simply endure treatment.

As the family processes the diagnosis and the public absorbs the news, the spotlight is on a young mother, a journalist, and a daughter of historic political lineage confronting one of life’s most profound challenges. Schlossberg’s essay offers both a personal testament and a cultural moment one rooted in fear, resilience and the urgency of time.