Environmental journalist Tatiana Schlossberg, one of three grandchildren of the late President John F. Kennedy, has died after she was diagnosed with leukemia last year. She was 35.
Schlossberg, daughter of Kennedy鈥檚 daughter, Caroline Kennedy, and Edwin Schlossberg, revealed in a November 2025 essay in The New Yorker. A family statement disclosing her death was posted on social media Tuesday by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.
鈥淥ur beautiful Tatiana passed away this morning. She will always be in our hearts,鈥� the statement said. It did not disclose a cause of death or say where she had died.
Maria Shriver, a niece of John F. Kennedy and a former award-winning TV journalist, grieved for Schlossberg on social media and called her 鈥渢he light, the humor, the joy鈥� and a great journalist who 鈥渦sed her words to educate others about the earth and how to save it.鈥�
鈥淪he loved her life, and she fought like hell to try to save it,鈥� Shriver wrote.
Schlossberg told of being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in May 2024 at 34. While in the hospital for the birth of her second child, her doctor noticed her white blood cell count was high. It turned out to be acute myeloid leukemia with a rare mutation, mostly seen in older people.
In the November essay, Schlossberg recounted going through rounds of chemotherapy and two stem cell transplants and participating in clinical trials. During the most recent trial, she wrote, her doctor told her 鈥渉e could keep me alive for a year, maybe.鈥�
Schlossberg also criticized policies pushed by her mother’s cousin, Health and Human Services Secretary , in the essay, saying policies he backed could hurt cancer patients like her. Her mother had urged senators to reject his confirmation.
鈥淎s I spent more and more of my life under the care of doctors, nurses, and researchers striving to improve the lives of others, I watched as Bobby cut nearly a half billion dollars for research into mRNA vaccines, technology that could be used against certain cancers,鈥� the essay reads.
Schlossberg had worked as a reporter covering climate change and the environment for The New York Times鈥� Science section. Her 2019 book 鈥淚nconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don鈥檛 Know You Have鈥� won the Society of Environmental Journalists鈥� Rachel Carson Environment Book Award in 2020.
Schlossberg wrote in The New Yorker essay that she feared her daughter and son wouldn鈥檛 remember her. She felt cheated and sad that she wouldn鈥檛 get to keep living 鈥渢he wonderful life鈥� she had with her husband, George Moran.
While her parents and two siblings tried to hide their pain from her, she said she felt it every day. Her siblings, Rose and Jack Schlossberg, are JFK’s other grandchildren.
鈥淔or my whole life, I have tried to be good, to be a good student and a good sister and a good daughter, and to protect my mother and never make her upset or angry,鈥� she said. 鈥淣ow I have added a new tragedy to her life, to our family鈥檚 life, and there鈥檚 nothing I can do to stop it.鈥�
Schlossberg’s mother Caroline was 5 years old when her father, President Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. She was 10 when her uncle, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Los Angeles in 1968 while he was running for president.
Caroline’s brother, John F. Kennedy Jr., died in 1999 when the single-engine plane he was piloting plunged into the Atlantic Ocean, near Martha鈥檚 Vineyard, Massachusetts. His wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, also died in the crash.
Shriver called Schlossberg valiant, strong and courageous.
鈥淪he was smart, wicked smart, as they say, and sassy. She was fun, funny loving, caring, a perfect daughter, sister, mother, cousin, niece, friend, all of it,鈥� Shriver wrote.
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Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Brumfield from Cockeysville, Maryland.
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