November 23, 2025 • 23 mins
35-year-old Tatiana Schlossberg, daughter of Caroline Kennedy, wrote a beautiful, impassioned essay in The New Yorker this weekend and we encourage everyone to please take a moment to read it. This young mother of 2 found out on the day she gave birth to her daughter last year, that she was dying, and sadly adding to a long list of tragedies her family has endured over the years. As we all get caught up in the stressful holiday season, Schlossberg’s story, her fight and her perspective will refocus your thoughts and recenter your heart.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, there, folks. It is Sunday, November twenty third, and
we are hopping on because we have a reading assignment
for you. Whatever you do, take the time, certainly, if
you can't do it today, do it in the next
couple of days and read the New Yorker essay by
Tatiana Schlasberg. She is the granddaughter of President John F.
(00:23):
Kennedy Junior, and in that essay she let us know
that she has been given less than a year to live.
And with that, welcome to this episode of amy and
TJ ropes. The headlines in a lot of places said
that the granddaughter of JFK has terminal illness, and that's true,
(00:45):
but so many of the articles nothing tells this story
better than she tells it in her own words.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I was so moved by her vulnerability, by the way
she described how she is living, what she's been through.
And my god, when you read how and when it happened,
she was thirty four years old in the hospital giving
birth to her daughter, and her whole world turned upside down.
(01:10):
And I think you know, in terms of the timing
of this article, we are now everyone's gearing up for
family and food and yes, it's fun, but it's stressful,
and people get to complaining about I gotta do this,
and Aunt Deborah said that, And this article puts your
life and why we're here into total perspective.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
I mean, I would dare anybody to read this article
and not have a better day than you plan. And
what I mean by that is you cannot go through
your day and not be more appreciative of your health,
your friends, your family, your surroundings. You have to be
more appreciative after reading something like this, and you talk
about holidays, everybody's getting ramped up for this family's getting
(01:54):
ready to spend what might possibly be the last set
of holidays with Tatiana Schlosberg. We don't hear necessarily, we
think Kennedy Kennedy client does. You could start naming off
Kennedy family members, but Schlosberg has been in the headlines
here lately because her brother just announced he's running for Congress,
And what did everybody say? That Camelot is back? Right?
(02:17):
Everybody's so these are our royals.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I was just gonna say, the Kennedy family, I can't think.
Maybe there's a Bush dynasty, but it doesn't even compare
to the Kennedy dynasty in this country, for sure. They
are our version of the UK's royal family.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
So I think everything that had I think it always
starts with JFK. Right, these these tentacles, and who he's
This is his granddaughter, his niece, and we use that
all the time. But this is the daughter of Caroline
Kennedy and her husband Edwin Schlosburg. Their daughter, the granddaughter
of JFK.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
And robe.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
She has revealed, as we said, the name of this
article line courage everybody. I beg you to read it.
It's called a Battle with My Blood and this is
where she explains that she has a terminal cancer diagnosis
and the doctor has given her one year to live.
Now it's about a It's a longer article, sure, and
it's worth every second that you read. But we want
to share some stuff from that article, and I think this.
(03:19):
There was so much in there to do robes, but
this was at least one quote or section I plucked
out that almost summed up the whole thing the best
you can, and least in terms of what she's going through.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
She says, during the latest clinical trial, my doctor told
me that he could keep me alive for a year.
Maybe my first thought was 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 the pictures he sees or stories
he hears. I didn't ever really get to take care
(03:53):
of my daughter. I couldn't change her diaper, or give
her a bath, or feed her all because of.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
The risk infection.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
After my transplants, I was gone for almost half of
her first year of life. 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.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
And folks, what we're talking about. The son is three,
I have it right. Son is three, the daughter is one,
and the daughter was born on the same day that
Tatiana Schlosberg found out that she had leukemia, that she
had this form of cancer robes and that the story
here is pretty remarkable. But she goes into the hospital
(04:33):
last year, last summer to have a baby. She has
the baby, and they notice something about her blood cell count.
They say it was off. Now I don't understand all
these numbers, but I understand at least the difference in numbers,
they have something this micro leader count. This is something
you're familiar with, yes, at least Okay, so there, it
was supposed to be between four to eleven thousand cells
per micro leader. Hers was one hundred and one thousand
(04:56):
and thirty one thousand, So obviously that's a discrepancy sometimes,
so that's some kind So they start looking at it.
Why was this If you have any I'm sorry, I'm
put you in a doctor hat here, but I wasn't
as familiar with what that means.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
No. So basically, when they saw these elevated white blood cells,
that can be a sign of an infection or leukemia,
but it also could have been something to do with
her body. She literally had just given birth.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
They told her right that this might be just associated
with you just had a baby.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
They actually told her, don't worry.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
It's either you know, this is just something that happens
to your body after you give birth, or it could
be leukemia, and we think it's probably something about you
having just given birth. Her husband at the time was
a med student, so he starts reaching out to everyone
they know, and they all kind of in the hours
they were waiting, they all were telling her don't worry.
(05:46):
It's almost likely just because you gave birth. Now, I
was imagining this. Any woman who's given birth to her child,
you want to have that cocoon, that moment you're holding
your baby. Her mother and her father were coming in
with their three year old and she had to be
immediately wheeled away to undergo hours of tests while they
(06:07):
all waited for the results, which was the worst case scenario,
something she couldn't have possibly prepared herself for.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Well, no, how could you ever prepare yourself right for
this kind of diagnosis. But we go farther than that,
robes in that this was something so wildly rare. Right,
if you get a cancer diagnosis at any age would
be difficult, but this was such a rare thing, and
for somebody her age, it was even more rare. This
is one of the healthiest thirty five, thirty four year
(06:36):
old women you will ever find, and for this to
happen to her again a rare mutation. She has a
cute myloid leukemia, and this rare mutation is called iverson
three in version three. Excuse me, I said, iris, And
I'm a sports fan. No, she's not a Philadelphia fan, Okay,
the inversion three so rare. The doctors are asking her
(06:59):
if she was a great zero for nine eleven.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Because blood cancers have obviously and terminal blood cancers have
been prevalent among folks who were there. She told them this.
This was such a shocking response given how young she was.
She said, I was in sixth grade when nine to
eleven happened. Yes, I was in New York City, but
I was nowhere near the site. And this was It's
been found in those types of emergency workers, but also
(07:22):
in much much older people, So it was it's bizarre.
They don't have an explanation. They don't know why. She
was explaining that the day before she gave birth, at
nine months pregnant, she swam a mile.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Yeah, people can't do that.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
The day before, she said, almost every weekend she went
to Central Park and ran anywhere between five.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
And ten miles.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, this is a healthy lady. I'm a physically active lady.
This is just what happens. Unfortunately, and some time. So
this set off a whole chain of events in her
life where this was supposed to be mediate bonding time,
expanding your family, and she finds out on that day
that her life is about to change. Change is one thing.
(08:05):
But there was a fight that ensued immediately on the
day of her child's birth for her to stay alive.
That immediately same day, her life became something else. So
this started robes whole rounds of chemo therapy, trials for drugs,
getting a bone marrow transplant, remission and relapse several times.
(08:27):
She has been going through hell for a year.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Yeah, she's had two bone marrow transplants, one from her
sister and one from a complete stranger who she says
she wishes she could think. She knows he's from the
Pacific Northwest, and that's it. And they worked for a
little bit of time and then she immediately relapsed.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
But just what it takes.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Look, we have an experience with our former colleague, Robin Roberts.
When you go through a bone marrow transplant. One of
my good friend's mothers did this too. They nearly kill
you with chemo to get your immune You have no
immune system, you're a baby. You have to be revaccinated
after each one. That is how much they what they
put your body through. So she did that twice, all
(09:05):
within the span of what it's been a year and
a half, just what she has been living through privately
for the last year and a half, what that family
has been through when they thought they were going to
be celebrating the baby's first steps, and she was probably
looking forward to changing diapers.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
That was just such a reminder of what.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
You think is going to happen, and in one moment,
your whole world can turn upside down.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
I didn't think about it too, You just said it
the idea. I mean, how many times, how many people?
How many times you rolled your eyes at some point
because one of your kids blew up the diaper again?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Right?
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Damn, I just changed right. Every parent out there has
had that moment. We get in, we understand why. And
to hear that a woman is desperate to change her
child's diaper and she cannot. She's too weak to even
pick up her child. At this point, she says she
had to learn to walk again when she went home.
She is just preparing for the end at a time
(10:00):
when and she makes this, I would have had the
same first thought. Will my daughter even know? I was hew, Mama.
She doesn't know it now, she's too young to kind
of understand it. But the woman she's seeing now she's
not having playdates with and not having those warm and
fun moments to take pictures. And here's video for like
(10:21):
it's tough, and you see the images of her now
versus just a year ago. Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
I was looking at her pictures from her happy marriage
in twenty seventeen. It's just remarkable what can happen in
a period of time. And I know as a mom, look,
this is nothing. But when you get a diagnosis, the
first thing you think about are your kids. How can
I take care of them? Will they remember me? Will
I be there for them when they need me? That
is what every mom would think immediately.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
So the baby is a year old now and the
holidays are coming up. You talked about what she's going
through robes, and I think many people will immediately think
also about what the family has gone through. The Kennedy family.
Like anybody listening right now can probably reel off at
least five tragedies you know about that the Kennedy family
has been through. Is they call it the Kennedy curse. Look,
(11:10):
that's a colloquial way that people try to sum up
and try to explain all the tragedies we've seen with
this family, but so many of them rongs we have
to in this is what every family goes through. Somebody's sick,
somebody dies in an accident, somebody goes jail, somebody makes
a mistake. All these things is just such a big clan.
(11:31):
They are everywhere, I mean, the Kennedy's and the names,
and so we look at it, and even the family
has said over the years, there's no Kennedy curse. Are
families just like every other family. We're just living out
these tragedies in public in the most high profile of ways.
But romes. When we go through here now and go
back to some of these things that's happened to this family,
(11:53):
it's hard to feel, like Jesus, this family is just cursed.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Frankly, yes, So you actually put together a list and
it is in. Some of them I knew, and some
of them I had forgotten about, and some of them
I had never heard of.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
That's true. It goes back all the way to nineteen
forty four. Joseph Kennedy Junior, the brother of JFK, died
in a plane crash during World War Two. This was
nineteen forty forty. Next years, in nineteen forty four, he
was twenty nine years old, so he was the one
they say that the dad really wanted to push into
a political career.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I remember this story, I remember seeing, but I had
forgotten about it completely. And then Kathleen Kennedy, that's the
sister of JFK. She also died in a plane crash
four years later in nineteen forty eight.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
She was only twenty eight that.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
One when she was going to Paris to the French Riviera.
I believe plane crash in ninety four, So keep going. Now,
Patrick Kennedy, I did not roams a my crazy I
did I not know this story. I remembered Jackie kin
I remember the talk about miscarriage. But Patrick Kennedy was
the newborn son of JFK. And Jackie Kennedy died thirty
(13:08):
nine hours after birth, born premature, die thirty nine hours
after birth in nineteen sixty three. So we there are
so many That is one of the most devastating things
that can happen to a family.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
And it happened to this same year that John F.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Kennedy Junior was assassinated November twenty second, nineteen sixty three.
So can you imagine Jackie O now is dealing with
the loss of a child in infant I'm sure she
held in her arms and probably watched die and was
grieving that. And now her husband is assassinated in this
same year at the age of forty six. Then, of
(13:46):
course Robert F. Kennedy, the brother of JFK, is assassinated
five years later during a speech in nineteen sixty eight.
He was only forty two years old. And then of
course we have the Ted Kennedy, brother of JFK.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah, everybody knows that story. They talk about the curse,
but that story, I mean that dogged him the rest
of his life. Yes, nuts, And yes, the young lady.
How old was she when she died?
Speaker 3 (14:12):
She was twenty eight twenties, Yeah, I knew it was young.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Had a twenty eight year old woman. Everybody knows the story.
He drove it off a bridge, shap equitic, didn't call
and reported for another ten hours, but she got trapped
in there and died. But that was something that again
dogged him in that family for quite a while.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Then you have David Kennedy, who's the son of Robert
and Ethel. He died of an overdose in nineteen eighty
four at the age of twenty eight.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Some of these ages really throw me.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Yes, so young, Michael Kennedy, I really I remembered this.
One son of Robert and Ethel as Well, died in
a skiing accident in Aspen on New Year's Even nineteen
ninety seven. He was just thirty nine. So there you
have Robert and Ethel losing two sons too young, so
so tragic. And then of course we all remember jfkjun
You're in Carolyn bes At Kennedy, along with her sister,
(14:57):
all dying in that plane crash in nineteen ninety nine.
They were heading to a family wedding, thirty eight years.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Old, these ages, and he was as camelot as they get.
I mean, he's just immortalized that picture, that stunning image
of him, handsome as they get. Right, that was Mary Kennedy.
This is one you reminded me of. I did not remember.
She was the estranged wife of RFK. Junior. Died by
suicide in twenty twelve at the age of fifty two.
(15:24):
And again this is another tragedy part of that family
you recalled.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
He found her, found her hanging in the barn like
it was really dramatic and traumatic and made a lot
of headlines. And then Sirsha Kennedy Hill, I remember a
granddaughter of Robert and Ethel Again that family specifically had
a lot of just unbelievable tragedies. She died by an
accidental overdose in August of twenty nineteen. She was only
(15:51):
twenty two. And then I remember this story, Mav Kennedy
Townsend McCain, and she's the granddaughter of RFK. She went
into a canoe with her eight year old son. They
went missing.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Their bodies were found a few days later. She was
just forty. Again, her son was only eight.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
When you hear about these things and a Kennedy pay,
you know, it's wild how how infrequent we seem to
hear about a Kennedy dying of old age. Obviously it happens,
and not every one of those makes necessarily headlines. But
some of these A canoeing accident, overdose, suicide, skiing plane, right,
(16:28):
all these what in the world. So you can't help
but think, what is going on? So now we hear
about something happening to another member of the Kennedy clan
with cancer.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
That is rarest of cancer. That's what I mean. At
the youngest of an age and.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
The healthiest of people, and the most inopportune of times.
Is never a good time to get that diagnosis.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
But on the day you give birth, that's horrific.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Okay, she wrote, And again, folks, we mentioned at the
top here this beautiful, beautiful essay that we encourage you
once again to read. It's in the New York It's
called a Battle with My Blood. She talked a lot
about what she's going through, but stay here when we
come back. Want to tell you what she said in
that essay, also about R. F. Kennedy Junior, her relative,
of course, who is now the head of HHS. And
(17:13):
do not miss, folks, who are going to share this
with you as well her closing and most beautiful line
of her essay. All right, folks, Robot and I continue
now again with the story of Tassiana Schlasburg, the granddaughter
(17:35):
of President John F. Kennedy Junior, sharing with the world
over the weekend and essay in The New Yorker that
she has terminal cancer. Doctors have given her a year
to live with this rare, rare leukemia. Thirty five year
old woman who is the mother of two kids, one
three years old, the other a one year old who
was born on the exact same day that she got
(17:58):
this diagnosis. Now we talk about how beautiful essay is.
She reserved some some moments for her other really famous,
high profile public relative, rifk Jr. I guess it was
kind of understandable, but it didn't seem that mean spirited.
She could have gone a lot harder than she did.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Absolutely, this is her cousin, and both Tatiana and her mother, Caroline.
Caroline has been very outspoken, writing letters to Congress asking
them to please not confirm her relative. That is, so
they have been outspoken, and again not in a mean
spirited way, but in a please we would like to
help protect our country kind of way.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
From our family member.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Correct. So she writes this in her essay. She said,
during one of my trials, my cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Junior,
was in the process of being nominated and confirmed as
the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Throughout my treatment,
he had been on the national stage previously a Democrat.
He was running for president as an independent, but mostly
(18:57):
as an embarrassment to me and the rest of my
immediate family. I watched from my hospital bed as Bobby,
in the face of logic and common sense, was confirmed
for the position despite never having worked in medicine, public health,
or the government. And she goes on to say that
some of the drugs, specifically one of the drugs that
she was being given, and certainly the vaccines that she
(19:19):
then had to take once her body was completely stripped
of any immunity, She said that those would all be
in question. If what her relative wants to put in place,
she might not have been able to receive the life
saving care that she needed and other cancer patients, and
she worries when she leaves that those other people who
(19:40):
will come after her will not have the same access
to the same drugs. And certainly the research that's been
going on to try and give her new medications and
longer and better way of living, they have all been stopped.
They have all ground to a halt, or some of
them haven't. So she worries about the future. And it's personal,
it's deeply personal.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
She I thought that was that was a really good
way for her to do. It did not sound bitter.
She made a policy argument, I use this drug my
family members ahead of a JHS. And he has now
put this drug that's helped so many under review that
I mean, you can't say any plan. I mean, she
didn't get into a nasty argument. She makes a good,
a human point, and too often we hear in Washington
(20:23):
arguments being made for a variety of reasons. But everybody
will listen to this woman, not because it's Slashburg and
it's Kennedy, but because we're actually hearing from somebody who
is impacted by things being done in Washington, and she
just happens to have the name and the access to
get her story out and make people listen. Plenty of
(20:45):
stories out there like this, plenty that they don't get
the chance to write about and tell about. So I
do applaud and that's why I find it necessary to
amplify this article.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yes, one hundred percent. She makes so many beautiful points.
And I think there's also just a recognition that it
doesn't matter how much money you have, It doesn't matter
if your last name's Kennedy or Schlosberg or whatever. She
was even talking about having holy water blessed from the
Pope in her possession, and still cancer does not discriminate.
And I just thought this beautiful essay she leaves behind.
(21:19):
Hopefully can a help all of us live a little
bit better and a little bit more gratefully. Coming up
on this week where gratitude is at the forefront, but
also just recognize how important who we elect and the
ripple effects certain policies can have on so many people
that you might not even know you will one day
fit into the category of you might not think you'll
(21:40):
ever be a cancer patient, but you could, and this
stuff matters.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
And most people never do think they'll be a cancer patient.
She closed with this line or the stood out because
you and I talk about this thing all the time,
trying to live in the moment, and she made an
argument for why she can't right now. She closed with this, folks,
she said, mostly I try to live and be with
them now, but being in the present is harder than
it sounds. So I let the memories come and go.
(22:05):
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
(22:27):
to remember. Well done, Tatiana Slashburgh, really really really well done.
That was just absolutely beautiful. And it was thought provoking, yes,
and emotional.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Yes, I'm crying for her and for her children, But
I really appreciate the fact that she was willing to
put this hale out there. It's not easy to be
known as and remembered for being a cancer patient.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
And she even talked about with her son.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
She talks to him about what mommy does. She writes
about the environment, she writes about protecting the ocean. She
wants him to know him as something more than that.
But this was just such a beautiful gift to the world,
and I want to thank her for writing it, and folks.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
We would again, We will encourage you once again. Please
take a few minutes and read it in the New Yorker.
In the New Yorker, what was it? A Battle with
My blood is the name of from Tatiana Schlasburg. We
promise it is worth your time, and we appreciate you
spending some time here with us. But we're going to
hop on and speak on this it's been We've been
talking about this all weekend for the most part, and
(23:28):
been emotional about it all weekend. But I'm glad, she shared,
Glad we could share with you. But for my dear
Emmy Robot, I'm TJ. Holmes. Always appreciate you.
Hey, there, folks. It is Sunday, November twenty third, and
we are hopping on because we have a reading assignment
for you. Whatever you do, take the time, certainly, if
you can't do it today, do it in the next
couple of days and read the New Yorker essay by
Tatiana Schlasberg. She is the granddaughter of President John F.
(00:23):
Kennedy Junior, and in that essay she let us know
that she has been given less than a year to live.
And with that, welcome to this episode of amy and
TJ ropes. The headlines in a lot of places said
that the granddaughter of JFK has terminal illness, and that's true,
(00:45):
but so many of the articles nothing tells this story
better than she tells it in her own words.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I was so moved by her vulnerability, by the way
she described how she is living, what she's been through.
And my god, when you read how and when it happened,
she was thirty four years old in the hospital giving
birth to her daughter, and her whole world turned upside down.
(01:10):
And I think you know, in terms of the timing
of this article, we are now everyone's gearing up for
family and food and yes, it's fun, but it's stressful,
and people get to complaining about I gotta do this,
and Aunt Deborah said that, And this article puts your
life and why we're here into total perspective.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
I mean, I would dare anybody to read this article
and not have a better day than you plan. And
what I mean by that is you cannot go through
your day and not be more appreciative of your health,
your friends, your family, your surroundings. You have to be
more appreciative after reading something like this, and you talk
about holidays, everybody's getting ramped up for this family's getting
(01:54):
ready to spend what might possibly be the last set
of holidays with Tatiana Schlosberg. We don't hear necessarily, we
think Kennedy Kennedy client does. You could start naming off
Kennedy family members, but Schlosberg has been in the headlines
here lately because her brother just announced he's running for Congress,
And what did everybody say? That Camelot is back? Right?
(02:17):
Everybody's so these are our royals.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I was just gonna say, the Kennedy family, I can't think.
Maybe there's a Bush dynasty, but it doesn't even compare
to the Kennedy dynasty in this country, for sure. They
are our version of the UK's royal family.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
So I think everything that had I think it always
starts with JFK. Right, these these tentacles, and who he's
This is his granddaughter, his niece, and we use that
all the time. But this is the daughter of Caroline
Kennedy and her husband Edwin Schlosburg. Their daughter, the granddaughter
of JFK.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
And robe.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
She has revealed, as we said, the name of this
article line courage everybody. I beg you to read it.
It's called a Battle with My Blood and this is
where she explains that she has a terminal cancer diagnosis
and the doctor has given her one year to live.
Now it's about a It's a longer article, sure, and
it's worth every second that you read. But we want
to share some stuff from that article, and I think this.
(03:19):
There was so much in there to do robes, but
this was at least one quote or section I plucked
out that almost summed up the whole thing the best
you can, and least in terms of what she's going through.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
She says, during the latest clinical trial, my doctor told
me that he could keep me alive for a year.
Maybe my first thought was 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 the pictures he sees or stories
he hears. I didn't ever really get to take care
(03:53):
of my daughter. I couldn't change her diaper, or give
her a bath, or feed her all because of.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
The risk infection.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
After my transplants, I was gone for almost half of
her first year of life. 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.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
And folks, what we're talking about. The son is three,
I have it right. Son is three, the daughter is one,
and the daughter was born on the same day that
Tatiana Schlosberg found out that she had leukemia, that she
had this form of cancer robes and that the story
here is pretty remarkable. But she goes into the hospital
(04:33):
last year, last summer to have a baby. She has
the baby, and they notice something about her blood cell count.
They say it was off. Now I don't understand all
these numbers, but I understand at least the difference in numbers,
they have something this micro leader count. This is something
you're familiar with, yes, at least Okay, so there, it
was supposed to be between four to eleven thousand cells
per micro leader. Hers was one hundred and one thousand
(04:56):
and thirty one thousand, So obviously that's a discrepancy sometimes,
so that's some kind So they start looking at it.
Why was this If you have any I'm sorry, I'm
put you in a doctor hat here, but I wasn't
as familiar with what that means.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
No. So basically, when they saw these elevated white blood cells,
that can be a sign of an infection or leukemia,
but it also could have been something to do with
her body. She literally had just given birth.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
They told her right that this might be just associated
with you just had a baby.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
They actually told her, don't worry.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
It's either you know, this is just something that happens
to your body after you give birth, or it could
be leukemia, and we think it's probably something about you
having just given birth. Her husband at the time was
a med student, so he starts reaching out to everyone
they know, and they all kind of in the hours
they were waiting, they all were telling her don't worry.
(05:46):
It's almost likely just because you gave birth. Now, I
was imagining this. Any woman who's given birth to her child,
you want to have that cocoon, that moment you're holding
your baby. Her mother and her father were coming in
with their three year old and she had to be
immediately wheeled away to undergo hours of tests while they
(06:07):
all waited for the results, which was the worst case scenario,
something she couldn't have possibly prepared herself for.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Well, no, how could you ever prepare yourself right for
this kind of diagnosis. But we go farther than that,
robes in that this was something so wildly rare. Right,
if you get a cancer diagnosis at any age would
be difficult, but this was such a rare thing, and
for somebody her age, it was even more rare. This
is one of the healthiest thirty five, thirty four year
(06:36):
old women you will ever find, and for this to
happen to her again a rare mutation. She has a
cute myloid leukemia, and this rare mutation is called iverson
three in version three. Excuse me, I said, iris, And
I'm a sports fan. No, she's not a Philadelphia fan, Okay,
the inversion three so rare. The doctors are asking her
(06:59):
if she was a great zero for nine eleven.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Because blood cancers have obviously and terminal blood cancers have
been prevalent among folks who were there. She told them this.
This was such a shocking response given how young she was.
She said, I was in sixth grade when nine to
eleven happened. Yes, I was in New York City, but
I was nowhere near the site. And this was It's
been found in those types of emergency workers, but also
(07:22):
in much much older people, So it was it's bizarre.
They don't have an explanation. They don't know why. She
was explaining that the day before she gave birth, at
nine months pregnant, she swam a mile.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Yeah, people can't do that.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
The day before, she said, almost every weekend she went
to Central Park and ran anywhere between five.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
And ten miles.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, this is a healthy lady. I'm a physically active lady.
This is just what happens. Unfortunately, and some time. So
this set off a whole chain of events in her
life where this was supposed to be mediate bonding time,
expanding your family, and she finds out on that day
that her life is about to change. Change is one thing.
(08:05):
But there was a fight that ensued immediately on the
day of her child's birth for her to stay alive.
That immediately same day, her life became something else. So
this started robes whole rounds of chemo therapy, trials for drugs,
getting a bone marrow transplant, remission and relapse several times.
(08:27):
She has been going through hell for a year.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Yeah, she's had two bone marrow transplants, one from her
sister and one from a complete stranger who she says
she wishes she could think. She knows he's from the
Pacific Northwest, and that's it. And they worked for a
little bit of time and then she immediately relapsed.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
But just what it takes.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Look, we have an experience with our former colleague, Robin Roberts.
When you go through a bone marrow transplant. One of
my good friend's mothers did this too. They nearly kill
you with chemo to get your immune You have no
immune system, you're a baby. You have to be revaccinated
after each one. That is how much they what they
put your body through. So she did that twice, all
(09:05):
within the span of what it's been a year and
a half, just what she has been living through privately
for the last year and a half, what that family
has been through when they thought they were going to
be celebrating the baby's first steps, and she was probably
looking forward to changing diapers.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
That was just such a reminder of what.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
You think is going to happen, and in one moment,
your whole world can turn upside down.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
I didn't think about it too, You just said it
the idea. I mean, how many times, how many people?
How many times you rolled your eyes at some point
because one of your kids blew up the diaper again?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Right?
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Damn, I just changed right. Every parent out there has
had that moment. We get in, we understand why. And
to hear that a woman is desperate to change her
child's diaper and she cannot. She's too weak to even
pick up her child. At this point, she says she
had to learn to walk again when she went home.
She is just preparing for the end at a time
(10:00):
when and she makes this, I would have had the
same first thought. Will my daughter even know? I was hew, Mama.
She doesn't know it now, she's too young to kind
of understand it. But the woman she's seeing now she's
not having playdates with and not having those warm and
fun moments to take pictures. And here's video for like
(10:21):
it's tough, and you see the images of her now
versus just a year ago. Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
I was looking at her pictures from her happy marriage
in twenty seventeen. It's just remarkable what can happen in
a period of time. And I know as a mom, look,
this is nothing. But when you get a diagnosis, the
first thing you think about are your kids. How can
I take care of them? Will they remember me? Will
I be there for them when they need me? That
is what every mom would think immediately.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
So the baby is a year old now and the
holidays are coming up. You talked about what she's going
through robes, and I think many people will immediately think
also about what the family has gone through. The Kennedy family.
Like anybody listening right now can probably reel off at
least five tragedies you know about that the Kennedy family
has been through. Is they call it the Kennedy curse. Look,
(11:10):
that's a colloquial way that people try to sum up
and try to explain all the tragedies we've seen with
this family, but so many of them rongs we have
to in this is what every family goes through. Somebody's sick,
somebody dies in an accident, somebody goes jail, somebody makes
a mistake. All these things is just such a big clan.
(11:31):
They are everywhere, I mean, the Kennedy's and the names,
and so we look at it, and even the family
has said over the years, there's no Kennedy curse. Are
families just like every other family. We're just living out
these tragedies in public in the most high profile of ways.
But romes. When we go through here now and go
back to some of these things that's happened to this family,
(11:53):
it's hard to feel, like Jesus, this family is just cursed.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Frankly, yes, So you actually put together a list and
it is in. Some of them I knew, and some
of them I had forgotten about, and some of them
I had never heard of.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
That's true. It goes back all the way to nineteen
forty four. Joseph Kennedy Junior, the brother of JFK, died
in a plane crash during World War Two. This was
nineteen forty forty. Next years, in nineteen forty four, he
was twenty nine years old, so he was the one
they say that the dad really wanted to push into
a political career.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I remember this story, I remember seeing, but I had
forgotten about it completely. And then Kathleen Kennedy, that's the
sister of JFK. She also died in a plane crash
four years later in nineteen forty eight.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
She was only twenty eight that.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
One when she was going to Paris to the French Riviera.
I believe plane crash in ninety four, So keep going. Now,
Patrick Kennedy, I did not roams a my crazy I
did I not know this story. I remembered Jackie kin
I remember the talk about miscarriage. But Patrick Kennedy was
the newborn son of JFK. And Jackie Kennedy died thirty
(13:08):
nine hours after birth, born premature, die thirty nine hours
after birth in nineteen sixty three. So we there are
so many That is one of the most devastating things
that can happen to a family.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
And it happened to this same year that John F.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Kennedy Junior was assassinated November twenty second, nineteen sixty three.
So can you imagine Jackie O now is dealing with
the loss of a child in infant I'm sure she
held in her arms and probably watched die and was
grieving that. And now her husband is assassinated in this
same year at the age of forty six. Then, of
(13:46):
course Robert F. Kennedy, the brother of JFK, is assassinated
five years later during a speech in nineteen sixty eight.
He was only forty two years old. And then of
course we have the Ted Kennedy, brother of JFK.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah, everybody knows that story. They talk about the curse,
but that story, I mean that dogged him the rest
of his life. Yes, nuts, And yes, the young lady.
How old was she when she died?
Speaker 3 (14:12):
She was twenty eight twenties, Yeah, I knew it was young.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Had a twenty eight year old woman. Everybody knows the story.
He drove it off a bridge, shap equitic, didn't call
and reported for another ten hours, but she got trapped
in there and died. But that was something that again
dogged him in that family for quite a while.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Then you have David Kennedy, who's the son of Robert
and Ethel. He died of an overdose in nineteen eighty
four at the age of twenty eight.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Some of these ages really throw me.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Yes, so young, Michael Kennedy, I really I remembered this.
One son of Robert and Ethel as Well, died in
a skiing accident in Aspen on New Year's Even nineteen
ninety seven. He was just thirty nine. So there you
have Robert and Ethel losing two sons too young, so
so tragic. And then of course we all remember jfkjun
You're in Carolyn bes At Kennedy, along with her sister,
(14:57):
all dying in that plane crash in nineteen ninety nine.
They were heading to a family wedding, thirty eight years.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Old, these ages, and he was as camelot as they get.
I mean, he's just immortalized that picture, that stunning image
of him, handsome as they get. Right, that was Mary Kennedy.
This is one you reminded me of. I did not remember.
She was the estranged wife of RFK. Junior. Died by
suicide in twenty twelve at the age of fifty two.
(15:24):
And again this is another tragedy part of that family
you recalled.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
He found her, found her hanging in the barn like
it was really dramatic and traumatic and made a lot
of headlines. And then Sirsha Kennedy Hill, I remember a
granddaughter of Robert and Ethel Again that family specifically had
a lot of just unbelievable tragedies. She died by an
accidental overdose in August of twenty nineteen. She was only
(15:51):
twenty two. And then I remember this story, Mav Kennedy
Townsend McCain, and she's the granddaughter of RFK. She went
into a canoe with her eight year old son. They
went missing.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Their bodies were found a few days later. She was
just forty. Again, her son was only eight.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
When you hear about these things and a Kennedy pay,
you know, it's wild how how infrequent we seem to
hear about a Kennedy dying of old age. Obviously it happens,
and not every one of those makes necessarily headlines. But
some of these A canoeing accident, overdose, suicide, skiing plane, right,
(16:28):
all these what in the world. So you can't help
but think, what is going on? So now we hear
about something happening to another member of the Kennedy clan
with cancer.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
That is rarest of cancer. That's what I mean. At
the youngest of an age and.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
The healthiest of people, and the most inopportune of times.
Is never a good time to get that diagnosis.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
But on the day you give birth, that's horrific.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Okay, she wrote, And again, folks, we mentioned at the
top here this beautiful, beautiful essay that we encourage you
once again to read. It's in the New York It's
called a Battle with My Blood. She talked a lot
about what she's going through, but stay here when we
come back. Want to tell you what she said in
that essay, also about R. F. Kennedy Junior, her relative,
of course, who is now the head of HHS. And
(17:13):
do not miss, folks, who are going to share this
with you as well her closing and most beautiful line
of her essay. All right, folks, Robot and I continue
now again with the story of Tassiana Schlasburg, the granddaughter
(17:35):
of President John F. Kennedy Junior, sharing with the world
over the weekend and essay in The New Yorker that
she has terminal cancer. Doctors have given her a year
to live with this rare, rare leukemia. Thirty five year
old woman who is the mother of two kids, one
three years old, the other a one year old who
was born on the exact same day that she got
(17:58):
this diagnosis. Now we talk about how beautiful essay is.
She reserved some some moments for her other really famous,
high profile public relative, rifk Jr. I guess it was
kind of understandable, but it didn't seem that mean spirited.
She could have gone a lot harder than she did.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Absolutely, this is her cousin, and both Tatiana and her mother, Caroline.
Caroline has been very outspoken, writing letters to Congress asking
them to please not confirm her relative. That is, so
they have been outspoken, and again not in a mean
spirited way, but in a please we would like to
help protect our country kind of way.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
From our family member.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Correct. So she writes this in her essay. She said,
during one of my trials, my cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Junior,
was in the process of being nominated and confirmed as
the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Throughout my treatment,
he had been on the national stage previously a Democrat.
He was running for president as an independent, but mostly
(18:57):
as an embarrassment to me and the rest of my
immediate family. I watched from my hospital bed as Bobby,
in the face of logic and common sense, was confirmed
for the position despite never having worked in medicine, public health,
or the government. And she goes on to say that
some of the drugs, specifically one of the drugs that
she was being given, and certainly the vaccines that she
(19:19):
then had to take once her body was completely stripped
of any immunity, She said that those would all be
in question. If what her relative wants to put in place,
she might not have been able to receive the life
saving care that she needed and other cancer patients, and
she worries when she leaves that those other people who
(19:40):
will come after her will not have the same access
to the same drugs. And certainly the research that's been
going on to try and give her new medications and
longer and better way of living, they have all been stopped.
They have all ground to a halt, or some of
them haven't. So she worries about the future. And it's personal,
it's deeply personal.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
She I thought that was that was a really good
way for her to do. It did not sound bitter.
She made a policy argument, I use this drug my
family members ahead of a JHS. And he has now
put this drug that's helped so many under review that
I mean, you can't say any plan. I mean, she
didn't get into a nasty argument. She makes a good,
a human point, and too often we hear in Washington
(20:23):
arguments being made for a variety of reasons. But everybody
will listen to this woman, not because it's Slashburg and
it's Kennedy, but because we're actually hearing from somebody who
is impacted by things being done in Washington, and she
just happens to have the name and the access to
get her story out and make people listen. Plenty of
(20:45):
stories out there like this, plenty that they don't get
the chance to write about and tell about. So I
do applaud and that's why I find it necessary to
amplify this article.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yes, one hundred percent. She makes so many beautiful points.
And I think there's also just a recognition that it
doesn't matter how much money you have, It doesn't matter
if your last name's Kennedy or Schlosberg or whatever. She
was even talking about having holy water blessed from the
Pope in her possession, and still cancer does not discriminate.
And I just thought this beautiful essay she leaves behind.
(21:19):
Hopefully can a help all of us live a little
bit better and a little bit more gratefully. Coming up
on this week where gratitude is at the forefront, but
also just recognize how important who we elect and the
ripple effects certain policies can have on so many people
that you might not even know you will one day
fit into the category of you might not think you'll
(21:40):
ever be a cancer patient, but you could, and this
stuff matters.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
And most people never do think they'll be a cancer patient.
She closed with this line or the stood out because
you and I talk about this thing all the time,
trying to live in the moment, and she made an
argument for why she can't right now. She closed with this, folks,
she said, mostly I try to live and be with
them now, but being in the present is harder than
it sounds. So I let the memories come and go.
(22:05):
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
(22:27):
to remember. Well done, Tatiana Slashburgh, really really really well done.
That was just absolutely beautiful. And it was thought provoking, yes,
and emotional.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Yes, I'm crying for her and for her children, But
I really appreciate the fact that she was willing to
put this hale out there. It's not easy to be
known as and remembered for being a cancer patient.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
And she even talked about with her son.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
She talks to him about what mommy does. She writes
about the environment, she writes about protecting the ocean. She
wants him to know him as something more than that.
But this was just such a beautiful gift to the world,
and I want to thank her for writing it, and folks.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
We would again, We will encourage you once again. Please
take a few minutes and read it in the New Yorker.
In the New Yorker, what was it? A Battle with
My blood is the name of from Tatiana Schlasburg. We
promise it is worth your time, and we appreciate you
spending some time here with us. But we're going to
hop on and speak on this it's been We've been
talking about this all weekend for the most part, and
(23:28):
been emotional about it all weekend. But I'm glad, she shared,
Glad we could share with you. But for my dear
Emmy Robot, I'm TJ. Holmes. Always appreciate you.
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