Tragedy and tension collide in the storied Kennedy clan as the family mourns the loss of Tatiana Schlossberg while shutting out one of their own.
The heartbreaking passing of Schlossberg, granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy, at just 35 from acute myeloid leukemia, has been overshadowed by a bitter feud, with her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. barred from her funeral amid deep family divisions, asthe Daily Mail reports.
Tatiana’s battle began in May 2024, when routine blood tests after the birth of her second child revealed the devastating diagnosis, despite her feeling perfectly healthy.
She described herself as among the healthiest people she knew, having swum a mile just a day before while nine months pregnant, yet the aggressive cancer took her life on Tuesday. That was a mere six weeks after she shared her struggle publicly.
Her death was announced through the JFK Library Foundation’s social media, a poignant message signed by her husband, physician George Moran, their two young children, Edwin, 3, and Josephine, 1, along with her parents, Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg, and siblings Jack and Rose.
Tatiana, an environmental journalist from New York, leaves behind a legacy of quiet strength, but her passing adds yet another chapter of sorrow to a family all too familiar with loss, from JFK’s assassination in 1963 to the plane crash that claimed JFK Jr. in 1999.
The funeral, limited to immediate family and close friends, has become a flashpoint as RFK Jr., now Donald Trump’s secretary of Health and Human Services, finds himself explicitly unwelcome. It's a decision sources say is meant to protect the children and avoid added scrutiny.
“RFK Jr will not be invited, and the family made that decision intentionally,” a source told Rob Shuter’s Naughty But Nice, adding that shielding the kids and managing grief without public drama was paramount.
Let’s be frank. While grief should unite, the Kennedy family’s choice to exclude RFK Jr. speaks volumes about how far political and personal divides can fracture even the tightest bonds, especially when his controversial stances clash with their values.
Tatiana herself didn’t hold back, calling RFK Jr. the family’s “embarrassment” in a column penned before her death, and in a searing New Yorker essay, she lambasted his cuts to vital medical research funding.
“I watched as Bobby cut nearly a half billion dollars for research into mRNA vaccines, technology that could be used against certain cancers,” she wrote, decrying his slashes to National Institutes of Health budgets and threats to cancer screening experts.
Her words cut deep, and while some may argue RFK Jr. is shaking up a bloated system with his Make America Healthy Again agenda, it’s hard to ignore the irony of such criticism coming from a dying relative fighting cancer herself.
Beyond policy, RFK Jr.’s personal life has further alienated kin, with revelations of alleged online affairs and troubling behavior detailed by former paramour Olivia Nuzzi, 32, and amplified by her ex-fiancé, Ryan Lizza, leaving family members “disgusted” and “pained.”
Even his wife, Cheryl Hines, 60, draws sympathy from sources who decry his alleged mistreatment through illicit entanglements, with some urging an intervention to either end the marriage or get him help for what they call a serious compulsion.
While personal failings shouldn’t define a public figure, the mounting pressure on RFK Jr., coupled with a Daily Mail/JL Partners poll showing 19% of voters wanting him out of the Cabinet. This suggests his fight to reform health policy might be overshadowed by his own messy backyard.
