Tatiana Schlossberg Granddaughter of JFK and Jackie Kennedy Faces Terminal Cancer
Environmental journalist Tatiana Schlossberg publicly announced her terminal cancer diagnosis in November 2025.
Tatiana — who is the granddaughter of the late president John F. Kennedy and former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis — confirmed in an essay published by The New Yorker that she was battling acute myeloid leukemia and had been given approximately one year to live by medical professionals.
She discovered she possessed a “rare mutation called Inversion 3” that could not be “cured by a standard course” of treatment soon after her daughter’s birth in May 2024. (Tatiana and her spouse, George Moran, are also parents to a son, Edwin Garrett Moran, born in 2022.)
“I simply did not — could not — accept that they were referring to me. I had completed a one-mile swim the day before, while nine months pregnant. I wasn’t ill. I didn’t feel unwell. In fact, I considered myself one of the healthiest individuals I knew,” Tatiana wrote in The New Yorker. “I had a son I adored more than anything and a newborn I needed to care for.”
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Continue reading for additional details on Schlossberg and her family.
George Moran
Tatiana Schlossberg first encountered her future husband, George Moran, during their undergraduate years at Yale University. Moran pursued a career as a doctor at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, while Schlossberg worked as an environmental reporter for The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and The Washington Post.
The New York Times reported in September 2017 that the couple exchanged vows at the Kennedy family residence in Martha’s Vineyard in a ceremony officiated by former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick.
Tatiana’s younger brother, Jack Schlossberg, shared news on NBC’s Today in 2022 that his sister and her husband had welcomed their first child, a son named Edwin Moran.
“I can’t escape them,” Jack remarked about his sister and his infant nephew. “I love them dearly.”
Tatiana and George welcomed their second child, a daughter, in 2024. They have chosen to keep her name private.
Following her terminal cancer diagnosis, Tatiana praised George for his unwavering support during her illness.
“George handled every possible task for me. He communicated with all the doctors and insurance representatives I preferred not to; he slept on the hospital floor; he remained calm even when I, fueled by steroids, raged at him, declaring my dislike for Schweppes ginger ale, insisting only on Canada Dry. He would go home to put our children to bed and then return to bring me dinner,” she recounted in the New Yorker.
Tatiana added, “I realize not everyone has the opportunity to marry a doctor, but, if you can, it’s highly advisable. He is flawless, and I feel so wronged and profoundly sad that I won’t get to continue living the beautiful life I shared with this kind, humorous, attractive genius I was fortunate enough to find.”
Edwin Moran
Tatiana’s younger brother, Jack, revealed he had become an uncle during a 2022 interview on NBC’s Today.
“[Tatiana’s son’s] name is Edwin, but I prefer to call him Jack,” the Kennedy heir joked.
In her New Yorker essay, Tatiana remembered that Edwin’s hospital visits were rare moments of joy while she was undergoing cancer treatment.
“My son visited almost every day. … The nurses provided me with warm blankets and allowed me to sit on the skyway floor with my son, even though I was not supposed to leave my room,” she recalled.
Tatiana reflected on a special moment with her son as her hair began to fall out during treatment.
“My hair started to come out, and I wore scarves to cover my head, recalling, somewhat self-indulgently, each time I tied one on, how lovely my hair once was; when my son came to visit, he also wore them,” she shared.
Daughter
Tatiana and George welcomed their daughter — whose name they have chosen to keep confidential — in May 2024. After giving birth, Tatiana spent five weeks at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital before being transferred to Memorial Sloan Kettering for a bone-marrow transplant. She subsequently underwent chemotherapy at home.
She wrote in her New Yorker essay that one of her deepest fears after receiving a terminal diagnosis was that her infant daughter would not remember her.
“My son might retain a few memories, but he’ll likely begin to conflate them with photographs he sees or stories he hears,” she wrote. “I never truly had the chance to care for my daughter — I couldn’t change her diaper, give her a bath, or feed her, all due to the risk of infection post-transplants. I was absent for nearly half of her first year of life. I don’t truly know who she perceives me to be, and whether she will sense or recall, once I am gone, that I am her mother.”
John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy
Tatiana is the granddaughter of the late President John F. Kennedy and former first lady Jackie Kennedy. The Kennedys had a daughter, Caroline Kennedy, and a son, John F. Kennedy Jr. (They also experienced the loss of two other children, a daughter named Arabella and a son named Patrick.)
President Kennedy was tragically killed at 46 years old in a shooting on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Jackie later married Greek-Argentine shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who passed away at 69 in 1975. Jackie herself succumbed to Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at 64 in May 1994.
Caroline Kennedy
John and Jackie Kennedy welcomed their daughter, Caroline Kennedy, in November 1957. She was only five years old when her father was assassinated in 1963.
As an adult, Caroline worked at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she met her future husband, Edwin Schlossberg. They married at Our Lady of Victory Church in Centerville, Massachusetts, in 1986 and later became parents to three children: Rose, Tatiana, and Jack.
Caroline eventually followed her family’s political path, serving as an ambassador to Australia and Japan during the presidential administrations of Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
Tatiana acknowledged her parents and siblings for their assistance in raising her two children while she underwent demanding cancer treatment.
“My parents, along with my brother and sister, have also been caring for my children and sitting by my side in various hospital rooms almost daily for the past year and a half. They have steadfastly held my hand through my suffering, striving to conceal their own pain and sadness to shield me from it,” she penned in her New Yorker essay. “This has been an immense blessing, even though I feel their anguish every day. Throughout my entire life, I have tried to be virtuous, to be a diligent student, a good sister, and a good daughter, and to protect my mother and never cause her distress or anger. Now I have added a new tragedy to her life, to our family’s life, and there is nothing I can do to prevent it.”
Edwin Schlossberg
Caroline’s husband, Edwin Schlossberg, is an accomplished artist and designer. He founded the firm ESI Design and has authored several books exploring design philosophy.
Edwin was appointed to the Commission of Fine Arts by President Obama in 2011, having previously received the distinguished National Arts Club Medal of Honor in 2004.
Rose Kennedy Schlossberg
Caroline and Edwin’s eldest daughter, Rose Schlossberg, was born in June 1988 and was named after her maternal great-grandmother, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy.
She attended Harvard University, where she once gave Lindsay Lohan and her then-girlfriend Samantha Ronson a campus tour, according to the Boston Herald. She later earned her master’s degree in interactive telecommunications from New York University.
Rose has served as a production assistant on the TV show Brick City and the 2012 documentary Hard Times: Lost on Long Island. She co-wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning documentary series The Kalief Browder Story in 2017 and helped establish a permanent exhibit for her late grandfather, John F. Kennedy, at the Kennedy Center in 2022.
She married restaurateur Rory McAuliffe in California in 2022.
John ‘Jack’ Bouvier Kennedy Schlossberg
Caroline and Edwin’s youngest child, son Jack Schlossberg, was born in January 1993.
As an adult, he gained popularity on social media for his shirtless photos and witty pop culture responses — including criticism of American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy’s planned series about Jack’s late uncle John F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. (The couple perished in a 1999 plane crash, alongside Carolyn’s sister Lauren Bessette.)
In November 2025, Jack announced his intention to run for Congress in New York’s 12th congressional district in the 2026 midterm elections.
“I am not seeking office because I possess all the solutions to our challenges. I am running because the residents of New York 12 do. I aim to understand your difficulties, hear your narratives, amplify your voice, go to Washington, and act on your behalf,” he posted on Instagram.
Jack continued, “There is no place I would rather be than in the political arena, advocating for my home district. Over the next eight months, throughout this campaign, I hope to meet as many of you as possible. If you encounter me on the street, please say hello. If I knock on your door, I hope we can engage in conversation. Because politics should be personal.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Similar to many members of her family, Tatiana has maintained a strained relationship with her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ever since he endorsed Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. RFK Jr. was subsequently appointed by Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, a decision that sparked apprehension due to his past vaccine skepticism.
Tatiana addressed her strained relationship with her cousin in her New Yorker essay, disclosing that his confirmation to the HHS role added stress during her illness. She noted that her husband George’s position at Columbia University was potentially at risk because the institution was “one of the Trump Administration’s initial targets in its campaign against alleged antisemitism on campuses.”
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“If George were to change jobs, we were uncertain if we would secure insurance, given my preëxisting condition,” she wrote. “Bobby is a well-known vaccine skeptic, and I was particularly worried that I wouldn’t be able to receive mine again, leaving me to spend the remainder of my life immunocompromised, alongside millions of cancer survivors, young children, and the elderly.”
Tatiana unequivocally distanced herself from RFK’s assertion that “there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective” during a 2023 appearance on the “Lex Fridman Podcast.”
“Bobby likely doesn’t recall the millions of individuals who were paralyzed or died from polio before the vaccine became available,” she added. “My father, who grew up in New York City in the nineteen-forties and fifties, certainly does remember. Recently, I inquired about his experience receiving the vaccine. He said that it felt like freedom.”
