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The granddaughter of former US President John F. Kennedy has announced she has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer.
Tatiana Schlossberg said she had less than a year to live.
The 35-year-old shared the news in an article published in The New Yorker on Saturday, the 62nd anniversary of her grandfather’s assassination.
The climate journalist, a mother of two, has been an outspoken opponent of her relative, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., serving as U.S. health secretary under President Donald Trump.
In her article, Schlossberg described her shock at seeing her second cousin approved for the position while battling the disease.
Schlossberg was the daughter of designer Edwin Schlossberg and diplomat Caroline Kennedy. She is the granddaughter of John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the First Lady.
According to Schlossberg’s article titled “Fighting My Blood,” she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia after giving birth in May 2024.
She described her former healthy lifestyle, which included running, skiing and even once swimming in New York’s Hudson River “oddly enough to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.”
She said despite treatments including a bone marrow transplant and chemotherapy, doctors told her the results didn’t look good.
“During a recent clinical trial, my doctor told me he might be able to keep me alive for a year,” she wrote.
“My first thought was that my children wouldn’t remember me, their faces would always be on the inside of my eyelids.”
Schlossberg’s son was born in 2022 and his daughter in 2024.
Schlossberg’s uncle, John F Kennedy Jr, died in a plane crash at age 38, and his grandmother, Jacqueline, died of cancer when Schlossberg was a toddler. She also described the pain she feared her death would cause her mother, a former U.S. ambassador to Australia and Japan.
“I have tried my whole life to be a good person, to be a good student, sister and daughter, to protect my mother and never make her sad or angry,” she wrote.
“Now I’ve added a new tragedy to her life, to our family’s life, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”
She also described her unease at seeing her second cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., become Trump’s health secretary. Her father, Robert F. Kennedy, was also assassinated while running for president.
“I watched from my hospital bed as Bobby was confirmed for this position in the face of logic and common sense, even though he had never worked in medicine, public health or government,” she wrote.
“Suddenly, the health care system I relied on felt strained and crumbling.”
Earlier this month, her brother, Jack Schlossberg, announced his plans to run for Congress in New York.
He shared her post online on Saturday with the caption: “Life is short – let it rip.”
The Kennedy family’s generations of involvement in American politics, and the personal tragedies that often touched its members, have given it a prominent presence in American life.
