Tatiana Schlossberg, JFK’s Granddaughter, Passes Away at 35

BOSTON – Renowned environmental journalist Tatiana Schlossberg, granddaughter of former President John F. Kennedy, has passed away at the age of 35.

Schlossberg, the daughter of Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg, publicly shared her battle with terminal cancer in a poignant essay for The New Yorker in November 2025. The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation communicated the news of her passing via a heartfelt family message shared on social media on Tuesday.

“Our beloved Tatiana left us this morning. She will remain forever cherished in our hearts,” the family expressed in their statement. Details about the exact cause of her passing or her location at the time were not provided.

In May 2024, at the age of 34, Schlossberg was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, a condition discovered shortly after the birth of her second child when an unusual increase in her white blood cell count was noted. This specific type of leukemia, compounded by a rare mutation, is typically found in older adults.

Her essay, titled “A Battle With My Blood,” vividly describes her journey through multiple chemotherapy sessions, two stem cell transplants, and participation in clinical trials. In her latest trial, she recounted her doctor’s prognosis, stating he could extend her life by perhaps another year.

Within the essay, Schlossberg also voiced her concerns over policies advocated by her mother’s cousin, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., arguing that his proposals could potentially harm cancer patients like herself. Her mother had previously urged senators to oppose his confirmation.

“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,” the essay reads.

Schlossberg had worked as a reporter covering climate change and the environment for The New York Times’ Science section. Her 2019 book “Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have” won the Society of Environmental Journalists’ Rachel Carson Environment Book Award in 2020.

Schlossberg wrote in The New Yorker essay that she feared her daughter and son wouldn’t remember her. She felt cheated and sad that she wouldn’t get to keep living “the wonderful life” she had with her husband, George Moran. While her parents and siblings, Rose and Jack, tried to hide their pain from her, she said she felt it every day.

“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 said. “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.”