One Of Tatiana Schlossberg's Final Public Appearances Was With Prince William

In the latest tragedy to befall the fabled Kennedy family, author and journalist Tatiana Schlossberg, granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy, has died at the age of 35 after being diagnosed with terminal leukemia just over a year and a half ago (per CNN). The diagnosis came in May 2024, shortly after Schlossberg gave birth to her daughter. Understandably, given her pregnancy and eventual illness, the writer's public appearances became fewer and further between in her final years. But one of Schlossberg's final such appearances was certainly in esteemed company: the future King of England, Prince William.

The event in question took place in December 2022. Schlossberg was joined by her brother, Jack Schlossberg, and their mother, Caroline Kennedy, to welcome Prince William to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston and show him around the premises. The Prince of Wales and his wife, Catherine, Princess of Wales, had traveled to Beantown for the second iteration of his environment-focused Earthshot Prize ceremony.

Pool/Getty

Notably, much like Prince William himself, Schlossberg was a noted environmental advocate, having penned many articles on the subject of protecting the planet. Her final article for The New York Times from September 2023 was titled, "The Importance of Protecting Ocean Life." Schlossberg also authored the 2019 book "Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have," which took home the Rachel Carson Environment Book Award at the SEJ 19th Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment. "Using history, science, and a personal narrative, Schlossberg provides a better understanding of both individual and systemic drivers of ecological destruction," the judges said of her work.

While welcoming Prince William to Boston in late 2022 was among Tatiana Schlossberg's final public appearances, it was not the final time she was on hand for a high-profile event. That appears to have been at the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award Ceremony in October 2023. "We're gathered here tonight to honor my grandfather's legacy by celebrating courage — the quality in public life that he admired most," Schlossberg said on stage to open the show. She continued, "We have seven outstanding honorees, and their stories are a reminder that fighting for peace and justice is always possible, even in difficult and scary times like our own."

Even as Schlossberg found herself in the midst of her own difficult and scary time, and stopped appearing in public as a result, she did not retreat from the public eye altogether, and stayed true to her chosen career as a journalist. In November 2025, Schlossberg penned an article for The New Yorker titled "A Battle With My Blood," in which she revealed her terminal cancer diagnosis a year and a half prior, and detailed her life with the disease. She was also not shy about taking aim at her uncle, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in what would prove to be her final public declaration.

"I watched from my hospital bed as Bobby, in the face of logic and common sense, was confirmed for the position ... As I spent more and more of my life under the care of doctors, nurses, and researchers striving to improve the lives of others, I watched as Bobby cut nearly half a billion dollars for research into mRNA vaccines, technology that could be used against certain cancers," Schlossberg wrote.