A Kennedy Family Rift Amidst a Personal Health Crisis
Tatiana Schlossberg, the 35-year-old granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy, has publicly disclosed her private battle with a terminal cancer diagnosis while launching a searing critique of her second cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and his controversial appointment as the US Secretary of Health and Human Services.
In a deeply personal essay published in the New Yorker on the 62nd anniversary of JFK's assassination, Schlossberg revealed she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in May 2024. She explained that the aggressive blood cancer was discovered through routine tests following the birth of her second child, despite her having no prior symptoms.
Watching a Political Confirmation from a Hospital Bed
Schlossberg described the surreal and horrifying experience of watching RFK Jr's confirmation for the top health post from her hospital bed in February. She was undergoing CAR-T therapy, a treatment developed through decades of government-funded research, at the time.
She wrote that RFK Jr, who suspended his presidential campaign in August 2024 and endorsed Donald Trump, was 'mostly an embarrassment to me and the rest of my immediate family'. She expressed astonishment at his confirmation 'in the face of logic and common sense,' noting he had never worked in medicine, public health, or government.
Her mother, Caroline Kennedy, the former US Ambassador to Australia and Japan, wrote to the Senate to block his confirmation, while her brother had publicly spoken out against his 'lies for months.'
Policy Fears for Healthcare and Research
Following his confirmation, Schlossberg said the healthcare system she relied on suddenly felt 'strained, shaky'. She accused RFK Jr of implementing policies that directly threatened her care and that of millions of others.
Her specific concerns included:
- Slashing billions from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), leading to cancelled grants and clinical trials.
- Cutting nearly half a billion dollars for mRNA vaccine research, a technology with potential applications in fighting cancer.
- Jeopardising her access to vital leukemia and bone-marrow trials at Memorial Sloan Kettering, which represented her best chance at remission.
She also condemned his long-standing anti-vaccine stance, quoting his claim that 'There's no vaccine that is safe and effective.' As an immunocompromised patient, she fears being unable to receive future vaccines, leaving her vulnerable 'along with millions of cancer survivors, small children, and the elderly.' She contrasted this with her father's memory of the polio vaccine, which he said 'felt like freedom.'
Another profound fear emerged when she learned that misoprostol—a drug that saved her life during a postpartum hemorrhage—was 'under review' by the FDA at RFK Jr's urging because of its use in medication abortion. 'I think about what would have happened if it had not been immediately available to me and to millions of other women who need it to save their lives,' she wrote.
A Personal Reflection on Life and Legacy
The essay closed on a poignant note, with Schlossberg reflecting on how her illness derailed plans to write a book about the oceans. She noted the profound irony that one of her chemotherapy drugs, cytarabine, was derived from a Caribbean sponge and discovered through the very kind of government-funded research that RFK Jr had cut.
In a final, heartfelt statement to her son, she wrote, 'I remind my son that I am a writer, so that he will know that I was not just a sick person.'
The Daily Mail has reported that it reached out to RFK Jr's team for comment.
