John F Kennedy’s granddaughter has revealed she is dying from a terminal cancer diagnosis at just 35 – and has reflected on how she has added a ‘new tragedy’ to her mother’s life, saying: ‘And there’s nothing I can do to stop it.’
Writing an essay in the New Yorker this weekend, Tatiana Schlossberg revealed she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, a type of blood cancer, back in May 2024.
The daughter of Caroline Kennedy, whose parents were John F. Kennedy and Jackie Onassis, said she had no symptoms and was ‘one of the healthiest people I knew’ when she was given the shock diagnosis.
Doctors only found the disease through routine blood tests after she gave birth to her second child.
The environmental journalist and author spent five weeks at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital after welcoming her baby, before she was transferred to Memorial Sloan Kettering for a bone-marrow transplant.
After undergoing chemotherapy at home, she was offered CAR-T-cell therapy, a type of immunotherapy used to treat certain blood cancers.
However, in a devastating blow, the 35-year-old was told by doctors earlier this year that she has just a year left to live and is now focusing on the present with her young family, her daughter, one, son, three, and doctor husband George Moran.
Schlossberg’s illness is just the latest tragedy to befall the Kennedy family, who have battled assassination plots, drug overdoses, and scandal for the past 50 years, with some dubbing the dynasty’s ill-fated lives as the ‘Kennedy curse’.
Here, the Daily Mail looks back at the biggest traumas to hit the Kennedy family:
Tatiana Schlossberg, 35, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, a type of blood cancer, in May 2024. In an essay for The New Yorker this weekend, she revealed she is dying from the disease
President JFK’s 1963 assassination
The most famous death in the Kennedy family was that of President John F. Kennedy who was brutally shot by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas on November 22, 1963
Kennedy was in Texas with his wife Jackie and Vice President Lyndon B Johnson (pictured) on the day of his assassination in Dallas
The most famous death in the Kennedy family was that of President John F Kennedy who was brutally shot by Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963.
Kennedy was in Texas with his wife Jackie and Vice President Lyndon B Johnson on the day of his assassination, preparing to deliver a speech on the strength of the US – but he never reached the podium.
The president was shot three times as he rode in a open-top limousine, waving to crowds in Dallas.
Seated to his left was the first lady, his wife of 10 years, who cradled him and screamed out for help following the shocking assassination which was captured by TV crews and reporters in real time.
Three shots were fired in total. The first bullet missed, while the second struck Kennedy near the base of the back of his neck and exited out of the front of his neck.
The third bullet entered the back of his head on the right and exited out the same side, causing the massive wound that ultimately killed him.
Robert F Kennedy was killed on June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles shortly after he won the California Democratic presidential primary (pictured in March 1968)
Kennedy was shot twice by Sirhan Sirhan (pictured) who gunned him down at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles
JFK’s younger brother Robert was also brutally gunned down, by a man named Sirhan Sirhan, who shot two or three rounds at the former president’s brother, just five years after JFK was killed.
Kennedy was killed on June 5th, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, as he and his entourage walked through, shortly after he won the California Democratic presidential primary.
The U.S. senator from New York died the following day aged 42 and pictures captured at the time showed him clutching rosary beads as hotel staff gathered around to try and save him.
JFK Jr. and Caroline Bassette’s fatal plane crash
JFK Jr crashed his small plane into the ocean around seven miles from Martha’s Vineyard in 1999, killing his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister Lauren Bessette
The journalist and publisher, 38, was on his way to his cousin’s wedding with his wife fashion publicist Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister Lauren Bessette.
His plan on the day of the flight on July 16, was to fly with his wife, 33, and sister-in-law, 34, to Martha’s Vineyard to drop Lauren off, before continuing with Carolyn to Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.
But the trio died around seven miles from Martha’s Vineyard after it’s thought he lost his bearings over the Atlantic Ocean due to poor visibility and a lack of training.
While Senator Ten Kennedy, the last surviving brother of JFK did not die in the fatal incident, it still cast a dark shadow over the family.
Ted had visited Martha’s Vineyard to race in the Edgartown Regatta in July 1969 and on the evening of the 18th, he attended a party at a rented house on Chappaquiddick Island.
Among the guests were Kennedy family friends and several women, including Mary Jo Kopechne, who had worked on the presidential campaign of his brother Robert F. Kennedy, who had been assassinated a year earlier.
Kennedy and Kopechne, 28, left the party together and a short time later their car plunged into Poucha Pond. Kennedy escaped from the submerged vehicle and said he made several futile attempts to rescue Kopechne, who was trapped inside.
The career politician, who died in 2009, later described his failure to report the incident to police for 10 hours as ‘indefensible’.
Senator Ten Kennedy crashed his car into Poucha Pond, and although he managed to escape, his passenger, aide Jo Kopechne, 28, died
The deadly drug overdoses that have claimed two Kennedys
The Kennedy family has been plagued by drug-related deaths for several decades after Robert F Kennedy’s son David, 28, was found dead of an overdose in a Palm Beach hotel in 1984.
Almost 40 years later, tragedy struck again when Saoirse Kennedy Hill, the granddaughter of RFK also died following an accidental overdose in 2019.
Robert F Kennedy’s son David, 28, was found dead of an overdose in a Palm Beach hotel in 1984 (pictured in New York in 1984). Right: Saoirse Kennedy Hill, the granddaughter of RFK died following an accidental overdose in 2019 at the family compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts
Paramedics responding to a call of a suspected overdose just after 2.30pm arrived at the family compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts and found the patient in cardiac arrest.
She was transported to Cape Cod Hospital, but tragically died at the age of 22.
2020: Robert F. Kennedy’s granddaughter and her son, eight, die in a canoe accident
Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, 40, (pictured with her family) and her son Gideon, 8, drowned on a canoeing excursion in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland in 2020
RFK’s descendants continued to feel the effects of the Kennedy curse and in 2020 Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, 40, the granddaughter of RFK, and her son Gideon, 8, drowned.
The pair disappeared as they were canoeing in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland.
They climbed into the canoe to retrieve a lost ball from a waterfront home, but failed to return to shore.
Both the public health and human rights lawyer and her son were seen struggling to return to shore during the canoe trip and Maeve was found 2.5 miles south of the Shady Side, Maryland, the home of her mother, four days after she disappeared.
Ted Kennedy’s daughter, 51, dies of a heart attack
Kara Kennedy died on September 16, 2011, from a heart attack following a workout at a health club in Washington, DC (pictured in 2009 with then-president Barack Obama)
While Ted may have personally escaped the curse, his children did not and in 2011 his eldest daughter, Kara, 51, collapsed and died on September 16, from a heart attack following a workout at a health club in Washington, DC.
It’s believed that the heart attack may have been brought on by the aggressive cancer treatment she was undergoing at the time.
Kara was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2002. At the time, she was reportedly told that her diagnosis was inoperable.
But her father, who died in 2009, helped her find a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston who removed part of her right lung. She then went through chemotherapy and radiation.
Following her death, her brother, former Rhode Island Rep Patrick Kennedy said the gruelling treatments had left his sister physically weakened.
‘Her heart gave out,’ he told reporters, ‘She’s with dad.’
JFK’s son’s untimely death at 39 in a skiing accident
Michael Kennedy and his then-wife Vicki Gifford – Michael would later die in a skiing incident following the breakdown of his marriage
Michael Kennedy, a lawyer and activist, was just ten years old when his father was shot and killed.
Despite the tragedy, he flourished, attending the prestigious Harvard university before becoming a successful lawyer.
Following allegations that he had been having an affair with the underage family babysitter, he and his wife Vicki Gifford split in 1997.
That same year, he holidayed with the rest of the Kennedy family in Aspen, Colorado, when he was killed after smashing in to a tree while playing football on skis without any protective equipment on.
Despite efforts to save him by his younger sister, he died at the scene at the aged of 39.
JFK and Jackie Onassis’s lost baby
Patrick was the youngest son of JFK and his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy.
He was born prematurely on August 7, 1963, and died on August 9, 1963. He lived less than 40 hours.
He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and JFK would later be interred beside him.
Patrick was the youngest son of JFK and his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy – he was born prematurely on August 7, 1963, and died on August 9, 1963 (his gravestone pictured)
JFK’s sister ‘Kick’ Kennedy’s death at 28
Kathleen ‘Kick’ Kennedy was the daughter of Joseph and Rose Kennedy and a younger sister to JFK.
On May 13, 1948, she was tragically killed at the age of 28 while on a flight from Paris to the French Riviera alongside her married lover.
Because of JFK’s blossoming political career and the scandalous circumstances surrounding her death, the family kept Kathleen’s death quiet.
She was buried in a small churchyard in Edenser, England and the only Kennedy to attend the funeral was her father.
The gravestone identifies her as Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington.
Kathleen ‘Kick’ Kennedy was also killed in a plane crash on May 13, 1948 while travelling from Paris to the French Riviera (pictured with JFK)
Young pilot Joseph P. Kennedy Jr lost to the Second World War
Joseph Jr was the eldest child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy and the eldest sibling of John F. Kennedy.
Joseph was killed in a plane crash while serving as a land-based bomber pilot with the United States Navy in World War II.
He was 29 years old when his plane exploded mid-air on August 12, 1944.
Joseph was awarded the Navy Cross posthumously.
Joseph P. Kennedy Jr was killed in a plane crash while serving as a land-based bomber pilot with the United States Navy in World War II
Accusations of rape
William Kennedy Smith is a physician whose work is centred on the rehabilitation of landmine victims.
He was accused of raping Patricia Bowman in 1991 in Palm Beach, Florida, after a night of drinking with his uncle, Ted Kennedy.
The nephew of RFK and JFK was acquitted by a Florida jury of sexual assault and battery on Bowman following a ten-day trial.
He claimed the sex between him and his accuser had been consensual.
Another sexual assault claim levied against William was dismissed in 2004 while an additional claim was settled out of court the following year.
In 2004, William said his ‘family and personal history have made me unusually vulnerable to these kinds of charges’.
William Kennedy Smith was accused of raping Patricia Bowman in 1991 in Palm Beach, Florida, after a night of drinking with his uncle, Ted Kennedy
Dangerous driving
In 1973, Joseph P. Kennedy II, then aged 21, was found guilty of driving to endanger after a car accident in Nantucket left Pamela Burkley partially paralyzed.
Burkley became paralyzed from the chest down when the vehicle driven by Joseph overturned on a country road.
Others were also injured, including his brother, David Kennedy, and Burkley’s younger sister.
Burkley decided not to sue Kennedy after getting $668,000 from an insurance settlement.
In 1973, Joseph P. Kennedy II (pictured) was found guilty of driving to endanger after a car accident in Nantucket left Pamela Burkley partially paralysed
A secret lobotomy
Rosemary Kennedy was the third child and first daughter of Rose and Joseph P. Kennedy.
She attended the Edward Devotion public school in Brookline, Massachusetts, for the first two years of kindergarten and was found to be deficient in basic cognitive skills.
Rosemary didn’t interact well with fellow students although at home, she adored her brothers, Jack and Joe, and they lavished attention on her.
With her issues, at age seven she couldn’t return to Edward Devotion School.
Joe Kennedy consulted the head of the Psychology Department at Harvard University, his alma mater, where they conducted mental faculty tests on Rosie and diagnosed her as ‘mentally retarded’ and suggested institutionalization.
In 1941, her father gave his consent for a pre-frontal lobotomy on his 23-year-old daughter.
Unbeknownst to his family, Joe took Rosemary to be examined by Dr. Walter Freeman, a neurologist and psychiatrist who was also a George Washington University professor.
Freeman diagnosed Rosemary’s condition as ‘agitated depression’, and suggested that a new neurosurgical procedure, a prefrontal lobotomy, would end the rages and ‘render her happy and content’.
Rosemary Kennedy (right, with her family) was the third child and first daughter of Kennedy patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy who authorised a pre-frontal lobotomy on his 23-year-old daughter
Following the operation Rosie’s body was left partially paralyzed, she was incontinent and could no longer speak – her father hid her away in various institutions until her death in 2005
Freeman was not a surgeon but a professor who performed theatrics at his lectures and ‘thrived on horror and fascination.’
Following the operation Rosie’s body was left partially paralyzed. Her head remained titled and the fingers of her left hand became gnarled.
Rosie became lethargic, incontinent, she couldn’t talk, relying on grunting, screaming and shrieking.
While re-learned how to walk, brush her teeth, dress herself she remained in guarded psychiatric facilities and care homes until her death
While re-learned how to walk, brush her teeth, dress herself she remained in guarded psychiatric facilities and care homes until her death on January 7, 2005, at the age of 86.
During this time she never received any visitors because her father, Kennedy patriarch Joe didn’t inform the family of the medical procedure and lied to his wife about her whereabouts.
