Tragedy Strikes the Kennedy Family Again
Tatiana Schlossberg, 35, granddaughter of slain President John F. Kennedy, shared on Saturday that she has been diagnosed with blood cancer and has been given less than a year to live.
In her poignant piece for New Yorker, she reflected on her prognosis. It was shared on the 62nd anniversary of her grandfather’s assassination, with her essay titled “The War on My Blood.” The powerful words detail her experiences and memories, evocatively capturing the essence of moments in her life.
“From what I gather, when faced with death, memories come flooding back. Flashes of people, places, and conversations become vivid. I recall my elementary school best friend making a mud pie, and in horror watching a candle and tiny American flag catch fire. Or my college boyfriend slipping in the snow, and I laughed until I cried, because I wanted to end things.”
In her writing, she mused, “Maybe my mind is just revisiting my life because I’ve received this terminal diagnosis. Or perhaps it’s because I haven’t had the chance to make many new memories, so I’m sifting through what I can.”
Schlossberg mentioned that just hours after the birth of her second child at New York’s Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in May 2024, doctors discovered elevated white blood cell counts during a routine blood test. Initially, they thought it might relate to childbirth or could indicate leukemia.
“It’s not leukemia,” she told her husband, George Moran, a urology resident at the hospital. “What are they talking about?”
But unfortunately, it was leukemia.
Since that diagnosis, Schlossberg and her healthcare team have fought the disease with chemotherapy, blood transfusions, and bone marrow transplants. The specific mutation she has, known as “inversion 3,” typically appears in older patients.
In January, she took part in a clinical trial for a new cell therapy. However, she was given a life expectancy of under a year.
Schlossberg, who is the daughter of President Kennedy’s daughter Carolyn, graduated from Yale University and earned a master’s degree from Oxford. She has a background in journalism and published her first book in 2019, exploring humanity’s daily impact on the environment.
The Kennedy family, descendants of Joseph P. Kennedy, have experienced numerous tragic events over the years, often referred to as the “Kennedy Curse” by the media.
Such tragedies began before JFK’s assassination in 1963. His older brother Joe died in a plane crash during World War II in 1944, and his sister Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy also perished in a crash in France in 1948.
More untimely deaths include Robert Kennedy, assassinated while campaigning for the presidency in 1968, and John F. Kennedy Jr., who tragically died in a plane crash in 1999, along with his wife and sister-in-law.
Over the decades, other family members have succumbed to circumstances including suicides, overdoses, accidents, and drownings.
Schlossberg is one of Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg’s three children. Her brother Jack, 32, is currently running for a congressional seat in New York.
Since 2017, Schlossberg has been married to urologist George Moran, whom she met while attending Yale. They have two children: a son, Edwin, who is 3, and a daughter, 18 months old.
In her New Yorker piece, she expressed concern for her children, reflecting on the memories they may not have of her.
“My first thought was about how my kids, whose faces I see each day, won’t remember me,” she wrote.
