Tatiana Schlossberg, granddaughter of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy and prominent climate journalist, has passed away at age 35 following a courageous battle with acute myeloid leukemia. The tragic news was confirmed through a social media announcement by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation on behalf of her grieving family.
Schlossberg, who had recently welcomed her second child, received her devastating cancer diagnosis in May 2024. In a profoundly moving essay published in The New Yorker last November titled “A Battle With My Blood,” she revealed her prognosis gave her less than a year to live. The climate journalist documented her intensive medical journey, including chemotherapy treatments and a bone marrow transplant, while confronting the heartbreaking reality that her children might grow up without memories of their mother.
Her writing poignantly addressed the emotional weight of introducing another tragedy to a family already marked by profound loss. President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and her uncle, John F. Kennedy Jr., died in a 1999 plane crash. Schlossberg expressed particular concern for her mother, Caroline Kennedy—former U.S. ambassador to Japan and Australia—writing about her lifelong effort to protect her mother from additional pain and sorrow.
As the daughter of designer Edwin Schlossberg and diplomat Caroline Kennedy, Tatiana had built her own professional identity as an environmental writer, contributing to The New York Times and authoring “Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have.” Her work focused on making complex climate issues accessible to broader audiences.
The Kennedy family, American political royalty, has now endured another generation of untimely loss, with Tatiana’s passing marking the latest chapter in their very public history of personal tragedies.