Warning: This article contains discussion of cancer which some readers may find distressing.
Tatiana Schlossberg, granddaughter of former President John F. Kennedy, has openly shared her devastating cancer diagnosis and her experience observing her cousin, RFK Jr., engage in health politics.
In an essay published in The New Yorker on Saturday (November 22), Schlossberg disclosed that she was given less than a year to live after being diagnosed shortly following the birth of her second child in May 2024.
The 35-year-old chose to share her story on the 62nd anniversary of her grandfather’s assassination. As a climate journalist, she also criticized her second cousin, Robert F Kennedy Jr., for his role as US health secretary during the Trump administration.
Schlossberg revealed in her essay that she has been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, a revelation that left her feeling bewildered.
As a mother of two, she expressed that she felt healthy, claiming to be the ‘healthiest’ person she knew.
However, that was not the case.
Despite leading an active lifestyle, including running, skiing, and swimming the Hudson River in New York ‘to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’, Schlossberg became an unfortunate victim of a mutated form of leukemia that ‘liked to come back’ despite advanced and harsh treatments that left her with mouth sores and an inability to eat.
Schlossberg recounted the moment she learned of her diagnosis, stating, ‘on May 25, 2024, my daughter was born at seven-oh-five in the morning, ten minutes after I arrived at Columbia-Presbyterian hospital, in New York’.
After she and her husband, urologist George Moran, admired their daughter, a ‘few hours later, my doctor noticed that my blood count looked strange’.
Schlossberg detailed that a ‘normal’ white-blood-cell count is ‘around four to eleven thousand cells per microlitre’, but hers was ‘a hundred and thirty-one thousand cells per microlitre’.
The doctor mentioned it could be nothing more than something related to her pregnancy… or it could be cancer.
Tragically, despite her belief that it couldn’t be cancer since she felt fine, it turned out to be an aggressive form that would become terminal.
Even after undergoing a bone marrow transplant and chemotherapy, Schlossberg stated that doctors have indicated her prognosis is not promising.
“During the latest clinical trial, my doctor told me that he could keep me alive for a year, maybe,” she wrote.
Schlossberg expressed her distress and apprehension as she watched her second cousin, RFK Jr., become Donald Trump’s health secretary.
“I watched from my hospital bed as Bobby, in the face of logic and common sense, was confirmed for the position, despite never having worked in medicine, public health, or the government,” she shared in her open letter. “Suddenly, the healthcare system on which I relied felt strained, shaky.”
The mother of two added: “Throughout my treatment, he had been on the national stage: previously a Democrat, he was running for president as an Independent, but mostly as an embarrassment to me and the rest of my immediate family.”
Even though her family reportedly attempted to prevent him from securing the role, it was ineffective, and he became known for his controversial views on health and medicine.
Despite knowing she wouldn’t be around much longer to witness future events, Schlossberg vowed to try to ‘remember’ as much as possible to carry with her into the next life.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the American Cancer Society at 1-800-227-2345 or via their live chat feature, available 24/7 every day of the year.