Tatiana Schlossberg, the environmental journalist and granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy, died Tuesday, December 30, 2025, at age 35 following a battle with acute myeloid leukemia.
The daughter of Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg was diagnosed with the disease on May 25, 2024, shortly after giving birth to her second child. Doctors discovered her condition during her hospital stay at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York.
Schlossberg had been diagnosed with a rare mutation of the cancer called Inversion 3, which she revealed publicly in an essay published in The New Yorker on November 22, 2025. In the piece, she candidly discussed her terminal prognosis and the devastating impact it would have on her young family.
“During the latest clinical trial, my doctor told me that he could keep me alive for a year, maybe,” she wrote. “My first thought was that my kids, whose faces live permanently on the inside of my eyelids, wouldn’t remember me.”
Schlossberg spent five weeks at the hospital following her diagnosis before beginning treatment. She underwent a bone marrow transplant and participated in a CAR T-cell therapy clinical trial as part of her fight against the disease.
The journalist leaves behind her husband, George Moran, whom she married in 2017, along with their two children: a three-year-old son and a one-year-old daughter. In her November essay, Schlossberg expressed profound sadness about the limited time she had spent with her daughter due to infection risks following her transplants.
Born into one of America’s most prominent political families, Schlossberg was also the granddaughter of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. She built a distinguished career as an environmental journalist, working for the New York Times and establishing herself as a respected voice on climate and conservation issues. Her book, “Inconspicuous Consumption,” was published in 2019, examining the hidden environmental impacts of everyday consumer choices.
She graduated from Yale and later earned a master’s degree from Oxford before turning her attention to environmental journalism. Her work appeared in numerous prominent publications, where she combined rigorous reporting with accessible explanations of complex environmental issues.
In her final published essay, Schlossberg also addressed her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was confirmed as Health Secretary under President Donald Trump. She criticized Kennedy as an embarrassment to the family, expressing concern about his positions on vaccines and medical research funding.
Acute myeloid leukemia is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow that typically affects older adults, though it can occur at any age. The disease causes the bone marrow to produce abnormal white blood cells that crowd out healthy blood cells. Treatment often involves intensive chemotherapy, and in some cases, bone marrow or stem cell transplantation. The Inversion 3 mutation that Schlossberg had is considered particularly rare and challenging to treat.
CAR T-cell therapy, which Schlossberg underwent during a clinical trial, represents one of the newer frontiers in cancer treatment. This form of immunotherapy involves removing a patient’s T-cells, genetically modifying them to target cancer cells, and then reinfusing them into the patient. While initially developed for certain blood cancers, the therapy has shown promise in treating various forms of leukemia, though it remains experimental for many conditions.
The diagnosis came as a shock to Schlossberg, who had maintained an active, healthy lifestyle. The disease was discovered through routine blood work performed after she delivered her daughter.
In her essay, Schlossberg reflected on the psychological burden of terminal illness while raising young children. “I’ve been trying to fill my mind with images of them, to remember them, though I know that’s impossible,” she wrote about her attempts to remain present with her children despite knowing she wouldn’t be able to remember beyond death.
The Kennedy family has endured a long history of tragedy. Caroline Kennedy lost her father, President John F. Kennedy, to assassination when she was a child.
Schlossberg is survived by her parents, Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg, as well as her siblings Jack Schlossberg and Rose Schlossberg. Maria Shriver, a Kennedy family member and journalist, paid tribute to her cousin, remembering her as valiant, strong, and courageous.
The environmental journalism community has lost a dedicated advocate who used her platform to educate the public about climate change and sustainability. Schlossberg’s work combined the urgency of environmental challenges with practical insights into how individual consumption patterns contribute to broader ecological problems.
In the final passages of her November essay, Schlossberg wrote about trying to remain present with her children despite her prognosis, allowing memories to come and go while attempting to fill her mind with images of them. She acknowledged the impossibility of remembering beyond death, but expressed her intention to keep trying to hold onto every moment with her family.
