Tatiana Schlossberg, New Yorker Essayist on Her Cancer, Dies at 35

Tatiana Schlossberg, an environmental journalist and member of the Kennedy family, died on Tuesday at the age of 35. Her unbidden essay about her cancer was submitted to The New Yorker in November, accepted immediately and released with minimal editing, the magazine said.

The essay, published online on Nov. 22 and in the magazine’s Dec. 8 print issue, ran about 3,300 words and disclosed her terminal diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia. In the piece she wrote that she discovered the diagnosis after the birth of her second child in 2024, and that she leaves behind two young children. The essay also criticized her cousin, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., saying he had cut "nearly half a billion dollars for research into mRNA vaccines" and noting he had never "worked in medicine, public health or the government," language attributed to her in the published piece.

The New Yorker’s editor, David Remnick, said he was moved by the essay’s "heart and intelligence and honesty" and recalled that Ms. Schlossberg declined invitations to discuss it further, telling him, "What else would I say?" The piece quickly became one of the magazine’s most popular of the year, topped its year-end list and prompted an outpouring of grief and condolences on social media and from political leaders; Maria Shriver wrote on Instagram, "I cannot make sense of this. I cannot make any sense of it at all. None. Zero."

Key Topics

Culture, Tatiana Schlossberg, Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Kennedy Family, David Remnick, Caroline Kennedy