Tatiana Schlossberg Reveals Terminal Cancer Diagnosis
Tatiana Schlossberg, 35, daughter of Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg, has revealed that she is battling terminal cancer.
In an essay published by The New Yorker on Saturday, Nov. 22, Schlossberg disclosed that she has been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, a rare and aggressive blood cancer.
Schlossberg said she first learned of the disease shortly after giving birth to her second child in May 2024, when her doctor noted an abnormality in her white blood cell count.
“A few hours later, my doctor noticed that my blood count looked strange. A normal white-blood-cell count is around four to eleven thousand cells per microliter. Mine was a hundred and thirty-one thousand cells per microliter,” she wrote.
Her doctor initially suggested that the spike could be related to pregnancy and delivery, but also warned that it could indicate leukemia. Further testing confirmed the diagnosis: Schlossberg has a rare genetic mutation known as Inversion 3.
Writing about her treatment options, Schlossberg revealed, “I could not be cured by a standard course.” She said she was initially told she would require months of chemotherapy and a bone-marrow transplant. “I did not — could not — believe that they were talking about me. 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.”
Schlossberg, who shares a 3-year-old son and a 1-year-old daughter with her husband, George Moran, whom she married in 2017, reflected on her responsibilities as a new mother. “I had a son whom I loved more than anything and a newborn I needed to take care of,” she wrote.
Following the birth of her daughter, Schlossberg spent five weeks at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital before being transferred to Memorial Sloan Kettering for a bone-marrow transplant. She also underwent chemotherapy at home and, in January, joined a clinical trial for CAR-T-cell therapy, a type of immunotherapy targeting certain blood cancers. Her doctor ultimately informed her that she has approximately a year left to live.
In her essay, Schlossberg praised her husband for his unwavering support. “George did everything for me that he possibly could. He talked to all the doctors and insurance people that I didn’t want to talk to; he slept on the floor of the hospital,” she wrote. She also acknowledged the support of her parents and siblings, who have cared for her children and remained at her side during hospital stays. “They have held my hand unflinchingly while I have suffered, trying not to show their pain and sadness in order to protect me from it. This has been a great gift, even though I feel their pain every day,” Schlossberg said.
Reflecting on her lifelong desire to protect her mother and family, Schlossberg wrote, “For 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.” She added, “Now I have added a new tragedy to her life, to our family’s life, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”
On her approach to her remaining time, Schlossberg said, “Mostly, I try to live and be with them now. But being in the present is harder than it sounds, so I let the memories come and go.”
