Tatiana Schlossberg, daughter of Caroline Kennedy and granddaughter of the late John F. Kennedy, has revealed a terminal cancer diagnosis at 35 years old. She shared her immediate thoughts and reflections in a powerful essay published in The New Yorker.
Schlossberg was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia shortly after giving birth to her daughter in May 2024. Her doctor initially attributed an imbalance in her white blood cell count to pregnancy.
Further testing revealed a rare mutation called "inversion 3." Her doctor informed her during a clinical trial that they "might be able to keep me alive for a year." This means she has less than a year left to live.
Her first thought after the diagnosis was that her children, "whose faces live forever on the inside of my eyelids," would not remember her. Schlossberg wrote about this profound concern in her essay, titled "A Battle With My Blood."
Schlossberg shares a 3-year-old son and an 18-month-old daughter with her husband, George Moran. The couple married in 2017.
She recounted her struggle to care for her infant daughter due to the risk of infection after her transplants. She couldn’t change diapers, bathe, or feed her.
Schlossberg noted that she was "absent for nearly half of her first year of life." She wonders if her daughter truly knows who she is or will remember her as her mother once she is gone.
With the limited time she has left, Schlossberg is focused on creating lasting memories with her children. She wants her son to remember her as a writer who cared about the planet, not just a sick person.
She shared specific memories of her son, including him trying to say "Anna Karenina." She also recalled a moment when he comforted her by saying, "I hear you, buddy, I hear you." Upon her return from the hospital, he greeted her by saying, "So good to find you here."
Schlossberg also described her daughter with "her red, curly hair like a flame," smiling with a toothless grin. She envisions her daughter walking around in bright yellow rain boots, pretending to talk on her grandmother’s phone, wearing a fake pearl necklace, and dancing to James Brown’s "I Got a Feeling."
Despite her efforts, Schlossberg admitted that "being in the present is harder than it looks." She allows memories to come and go.
Many of these memories are from her own childhood, making her feel as though she is watching herself and her children grow simultaneously. She finds herself pretending she will remember these moments forever, even in death.
Schlossberg concluded her essay by acknowledging the uncertainty of death. She said, "Since I don’t know what death is like and there’s no one to tell me what comes next, I’ll keep pretending. I’ll keep trying to remember."