NEED TO KNOW
In Tatiana Schlossberg’s heartbreaking November 2025 essay announcing her terminal cancer diagnosis, she shared that one of her biggest regrets was bringing more tragedy to the life of her mother, Caroline Kennedy.
The middle child of Caroline and her husband, Edwin Schlossberg, Tatiana died on Dec. 30 at age 35. Her family announced the news on social media, writing, “Our beautiful Tatiana passed away this morning. She will always be in our hearts.”
Tatiana revealed that she had been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in an essay published by The New Yorker on Nov. 22. She found out the tragic news while in the hospital after giving birth to her second baby, a daughter. Tatiana and husband George Moran, who tied the knot in 2017, also shared a son.
In her essay, the mother of two lamented the fact that her children weren’t old enough to be able to truly remember her after her death. She also shared her devastation for her mother, the only living child of John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy, whose life has been plagued by the heartbreak that seems to target her famous family.
“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,” she wrote.
Darren McCollester/Newsmakers
Caroline was just five days from her 6th birthday when her father was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Just over 30 years later, she lost her only sibling, John F. Kennedy Jr., in a tragic plane crash. Many other family members have died young or under bizarre circumstances.
“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,” Tatiana wrote.
In her final months, Tatiana wrote that she planned to try and focus on her family — especially her husband and children.
“[George] is perfect,” she shared of her husband’s efforts during her treatment, “and I feel so cheated and so sad that I don’t get to keep living the wonderful life I had with this kind, funny, handsome genius I managed to find.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
However, it was her children she thought of first when hearing from a doctor that she had “a year, maybe” to live, lamenting that, “my kids, whose faces live permanently on the inside of my eyelids, wouldn’t remember me.”
“My son might have a few memories, but he’ll probably start confusing them with pictures he sees or stories he hears,” she predicted.
“I didn’t ever really get to take care of my daughter—I couldn’t change her diaper or give her a bath or feed her, all because of the risk of infection after my transplants. I was gone for almost half of her first year of life,” she explained. “I don’t know who, really, she thinks I am, and whether she will feel or remember, when I am gone, that I am her mother.”
“Mostly, I try to live and be with them now,” Schlossberg continued. “But being in the present is harder than it sounds, so I let the memories come and go. So many of them are from my childhood that I feel as if I’m watching myself and my kids grow up at the same time.”
“Sometimes I trick myself into thinking I’ll remember this forever, I’ll remember this when I’m dead. Obviously, I won’t. But since I don’t know what death is like and there’s no one to tell me what comes after it, I’ll keep pretending. I will keep trying to remember.”
