John F Kennedy's granddaughter Tatiana Schlossberg has died aged 35, just six weeks after she spoke openly about being diagnosed with blood cancer
Image: AP)
Tatiana Schlossberg, the granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy, has died at the age of 35. She was the daughter of Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg. It comes just weeks after Tatiana confirmed she had been diagnosed with blood cancer in May 2024.
Doctors only discovered that Tatiana had been battling acute myeloid leukaemia following routine blood tests after she gave birth to her second child. The tragic news was confirmed by the JFK Library Foundation on social media, with the family saying: "Our beautiful Tatiana passed away this morning. She will always be in our hearts.
"George, Edwin and Josephine Moran, Ed, Caroline, Jack, Rose and Rory." At the time of sharing her diagnosis, Tatiana said: "I did not — could not — believe that they were talking about me." She added that she required chemotherapy and a bone-marrow transplant.
She added: "I had swum a mile in the pool the day before, nine months pregnant. I wasn't sick. I didn't feel sick. I was actually one of the healthiest people I knew." Writing in an op-ed piece, Tatiana said she was being supported by her parents, as well as her sister Rose and her brother Jack, having endured months of treatment.
Rose was a match to donate stem cells, which she did for Tatiana's first transfusion. She added: "My brother was a half-match, but he still asked every doctor if maybe a half-match was better, just in case."
Heartbreakingly, just weeks ago, Kerry Kennedy, the niece of John F Kennedy and Tatiana's cousin, said: "You know, she was so incredibly brave to express herself, and right now we're all holding her in our hearts, and holding Caroline in our heart."
Image:
AFP)Tatiana's mother, Caroline, was just five days away from her sixth birthday when her dad, President JFK, was assassinated in Texas. Three decades later, Caroline's only living sibling, John F. Kennedy Jr, died in a plane crash. Tatiana expressed that she believed her diagnosis had brought "a new tragedy" to her family. "There's nothing I can do to stop it," she wrote.
But while Tatiana was undergoing treatment, she also addressed the scandal surrounding her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, becoming President Donald J Trump's health and human services secretary – despite having no medical experience.
Writing for The New Yorker, she penned: "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.
"I watched as Bobby cut nearly a half billion dollars for research into mRNA vaccines, technology that could be used against certain cancers; slashed billions in funding from the National Institutes of Health, the world's largest sponsor of medical research; and threatened to oust the panel of medical experts charged with recommending preventive cancer screenings."
And while Tatiana was extremely ill, she still ensured her main focus would be her family, including her husband George Moran, whom she married in 2017 and her children Edwin and Josephine. She explained that George would head home, put their children to bed and return to the hospital to supply Tatiana with her dinner.
At the time of her diagnosis, when she was told she had "maybe" a year left to live, Tatiana's mind instantly raced to her two children, and she feared that they wouldn't remember her after her death. "My son might have a few memories, but he’ll probably start confusing them with pictures he sees or stories he hears," she heartbreakingly said.
She explained that her son knew of her job, which she had to remind him of when she became extremely unwell. But Tatiana explained she was never able to change her daughter's nappy or give her a bath, or feed her, due to the risk of infection after her transplant.
Tatiana said she was "gone" for almost half of the first year of her daughter's life and was left wondering whether her little one would ever "feel or remember" her when she had gone.
If you have been affected by this story, Cruse Bereavement Support offers free help to make sense of how you are feeling. Click here for their website or call 0808 808 1677.
The Macmillan Support Line offers confidential support to people living with cancer and their loved ones. If you need to talk, call us on 0808 808 0000.