Tatiana Schlossberg, the 35-year-old daughter of Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg, publicly criticized her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a deeply personal essay for The New Yorker on Saturday, Nov. 22, linking his controversial agenda as secretary of health and human services to her experience with a terminal cancer diagnosis.
Schlossberg revealed she has been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, receiving the official diagnosis shortly after the birth of her second child with husband George Moran in May 2024. She has been undergoing treatment since that time.
In her essay, Schlossberg directly confronted her cousin’s record, highlighting his anti-vaccine positions and decisions to cut funding for critical medical research. She described the impact these policies could have on patients like herself, whose care relies on advances in medicine supported by decades of government funding.
“During the CAR-T treatment, a method developed over many decades with millions of dollars of government funding, my cousin, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., was in the process of being nominated and confirmed as the secretary of health and human services,” Schlossberg wrote. “Throughout my treatment, he had been on the national stage: previously a Democrat, he was running for President as an Independent, but mostly as an embarrassment to me and the rest of my immediate family.”
She detailed the political turmoil surrounding his confirmation, noting that in August 2024, RFK Jr., 71, suspended his presidential campaign and endorsed Donald Trump, who publicly stated he would “let Bobby go wild” on health matters.
“My mother wrote a letter to the Senate, to try and stop his confirmation; my brother [Jack Schlossberg] had been speaking out against his lies for months,” she said. “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.”
Schlossberg explained how her treatment and personal circumstances intersected with her cousin’s policies. “Suddenly, the health-care system on which I relied felt strained, shaky,” she wrote. She noted that doctors and researchers at Columbia University, including her husband George, faced uncertainty about continuing their work or maintaining employment due to federal funding cuts, which affected hundreds of researchers after the Trump administration targeted the university over alleged antisemitism on campuses.
She also expressed concern about insurance coverage. “If George changed jobs, we didn’t know if we’d be able to get insurance, now that I had a preexisting condition.”
Central to her criticism was RFK Jr.’s skepticism toward vaccines. Schlossberg recounted her fear that she might be unable to receive immunizations while undergoing cancer treatment, leaving her vulnerable alongside millions of immunocompromised patients, children, and the elderly. She cited his past remark that “there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective,” contrasting it with her father’s firsthand memories of polio vaccination in mid-20th century New York.
As she underwent treatment, Schlossberg observed her cousin’s policies actively threatening medical research. “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,” she wrote.
She warned that these actions have real consequences for patients. Grants and trials were canceled, impacting thousands of individuals, including her own care. She expressed particular concern for leukemia and bone marrow research at Memorial Sloan Kettering, where she had been transferred.
Schlossberg also reflected on the importance of specific medications, including cytarabine, a chemotherapy drug derived from a Caribbean sponge—a discovery made possible by government research funding that she says RFK Jr. has now cut. She recalled a recent postpartum hemorrhage incident, noting that access to the drug misoprostol, currently “under review” by the FDA at RFK Jr.’s urging, was life-saving for her and millions of women.
Her essay concluded with a reflection on personal ambitions interrupted by illness. She had planned to write a book about ocean conservation and the possibilities it holds, a project intertwined with the very scientific advances her cousin’s policies now threaten.
Schlossberg’s public criticism comes just one day after another member of the Kennedy family, Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, published an op-ed in the Boston Globe, calling RFK Jr. a “betrayer” of their father’s legacy in his role as health secretary.
