Tatiana Schlossberg, a writer and a descendant of the prestigious Kennedy family, has passed away at the age of 35.
Tatiana was the daughter of Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg, and the granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy. She shared the news of her terminal acute myeloid leukemia diagnosis in a personal essay in November.
© Getty ImagesThe news of Tatiana's passing on December 30 was announced by her family through a statement posted via the JFK Library Foundation. "Our beautiful Tatiana passed away this morning. She will always be in our hearts," it read, naming "George, Edwin and Josephine Moran, Ed, Caroline, Jack, Rose and Rory."
In her essay, published in The New Yorker on November 22, Tatiana explained that she'd first learned of her illness in May of 2024 after the birth of her daughter, when her doctor noticed an abnormality in her blood count.
© Getty Images"A normal white-blood-cell count is around four thousand to eleven thousand cells per microlitre," she penned. "Mine was a hundred and thirty-one thousand cells per microlitre. It could just be something related to pregnancy and delivery, the doctor said, or it could be leukemia. 'It's not leukemia,' I told George. 'What are they talking about?'"
Once she learned of the diagnosis, she was stunned, and her thoughts first went to her two children with husband George Moran. "I had a son whom I loved more than anything and a newborn I needed to take care of," she wrote.
"My parents and my brother and sister, too, have been raising my children and sitting in my various hospital rooms almost every day for the last year and a half." She began treatment soon after receiving her diagnosis.
Tatiana heartbreakingly detailed her inner turmoil of adding "tragedy" to her family's lives. "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."
© Getty"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," she penned. "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."
Speaking with HELLO! at the Robert F. Kennedy Ripple of Hope Gala earlier in December, Tatiana's cousin Kerry Kennedy told us of how "brave" her cousin was for coming forward with her diagnosis. "You know, she was so incredibly brave to express herself, and right now we're all holding her in our hearts, and holding Caroline in our hearts."
Several other members of the extended Kennedy family have shown their support with public statements as well, including Maria Shriver and her daughter Katherine Schwarzenegger.
