The Essay That Split a Kennedy Dynasty: What Tatiana Schlossberg Revealed

A close look at Tatiana Schlossberg's viral New Yorker essay, A Battle with My Blood. It is an emotional piece that blends grief, legacy, and quiet fury, and it signals a deeper shift inside the Kennedy family. The episode walks through the layers of the essay and the choices behind it. From the shock of Schlossberg's leukemia diagnosis, to the way she describes the strained healthcare system, to her understated but unmistakable criticism of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., this story becomes both a personal account and a moral document. This episode explores why the timing mattered, why the family dynamics matter, and why this essay reshapes the public conversation around RFK Jr. as Olivia Nuzzi's forthcoming book adds another external blow. The episode closes with a look at the media cycle, the political stakes, and the long arc of the Kennedy legacy. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Why This Essay Shook Culture
• 1:07 Shock, Diagnosis, And Family Portraits
• 3:20 Dynasty Context And Generational Paths
• 5:04 Timing, Platforms, And Symbolic Signals
• 6:50 Values Clash With RFK Jr.
• 8:42 Drugs, Policy, And Real-World Stakes
• 10:20 Parallel Books And Colliding Narratives
• 12:40 Media Waves And Public Curiosity

Transcript

Molly McPherson: 0:00

Did you read the essay? The one that broke through every corner of the internet and should have lived quietly inside the New Yorker, but instead it became a cultural lightning strike. Tatiana Schlossberg's A Battle with My Blood is one of the most emotionally charged pieces published in recent memory. She begins by saying, quote, when you are dying, at least in my limited experience, you start remembering everything. And that line sets the tone. This is not a story from a safe place. One that's right down the middle. It is written from the edge. And when someone writes from a jagged edge, we take it in differently. This week on the PR Breakdown Podcast, I want to look at that essay. Let's break it down from the different layers. There's grief, there's a legacy, but there's also anger. The essay is raw and unflinching. I included a link in the show notes if you haven't read it. But there are so many sentences in there that jump out and put you in a place. I looked at that essay and thought, I can't imagine going through this. Schlosschberg wrote, I did not believe that they were talking about me, describing the shock of hearing she had leukemia. And this was just hours after giving birth to her second child, a daughter. She had talked about her son trying to drive her hospital bed around like a bust. You can just picture a young boy, that age, with that kind of rambunctious energy. She talks about her sister Rose holding her arms out for hours while donating stem cells. And she talks about the moment that really defines the legacy. She wrote, quote, now I have added a new tragedy to her life, to her family's life, and there's nothing I can do to stop it. That her, of course, is her mother. Carolyn Kennedy is married to Ed Schlossberg. And honestly, let me just give you my inside perspective on this. I think it's a rite of passage to grow up in an Irish Catholic family. You are told to revere the Kennedys. You are given books about the Kennedys. I remember when I was young, a book was given to me titled From Feast of Famine. And it was about every great Irish American. And then there on the cover was John Fitzgerald Kennedy. The Kennedys, they're one of many political families that you would consider a political dynasty, along with the Roosevelts and the Bush family. Many people still look at them with reverence. It's two entirely different families that kind of fall under the same umbrella. So anything that is kind of that RFK side of the family is a little more reckless. They were kind of left out on their own. So that's why it's no surprise that we have an RFK Jr. wreaking havoc in health and human services. But Jackie Kennedy, she certainly chose to raise Caroline and John Jr. a lot differently. It's no surprise that Carolyn Kennedy is doing the same with her three kids. Her oldest is Rose, who bears a striking resemblance to her grandmother, Jackie Kennedy, Tatiana is the middle child. And then there's Jack Schlossberg, who is the youngest child. He's now running for Congress in New York. He's a little bit of a, I'll call it like a loose canon right now, if you've been following him online, which I have. He's a little all over the place. But now he's buckling down and he's running for Congress at a time when his sister is really suffering from a health crisis. This is where the story widens. Because once you get past the heartbreak, you see something deeper. This essay is not only a personal record, it's also a correction of sorts, a signal of recentering of a dynasty. And the timing tells you that. She published it on a Saturday, November 22nd. And also the New Yorker, it's not that mainstream. But if you want to make a cultural impact and come at it from a more elevated layer, you choose the New Yorker, as opposed to People magazine, which was generic, more pedestrian, more pop culture. She went with an established, more of a stuffy publication, but it landed widely just the same. To publish it on the anniversary of her grandfather's assassination, not a coincidence. That timing is a message about legacy, memory, and perhaps moral responsibility. First, what the essay actually does. As I mentioned, Tatiana Schlossberg is the granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy. And she is the first cousin once removed of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., currently the Secretary of Health and Human Services. This family matters because in the essay she draws a quiet but unmistakable line between the values she believes in and the worldview that RFK Jr. is selling. She never calls him out by name in an angry way. Instead, she lays out her experience. She tells us the healthcare system on which I relied felt strained, shaky. She lists the research cuts, the dismantling of scientific programs, and the attacks on medical experts. And then she says the line that really stops the reader cold. Quote, Bobby, in the face of logic and common sense, was confirmed for the position. She doesn't refer back to when her mother came out. She does not refer back to the video her mother posted back in January. Take a listen. Compare that to this essay. Tatiana doesn't rant. She doesn't sermonize. She describes, and her descriptions become the indictment. She writes about being saved by a drug that is currently under review because of pressure from that same cousin who is now shaping national health policy. She wrote, I freeze when I think about what would have happened if that drug had not been available. That is the power of her voice in the written word. She does not tell you that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is dangerous. She shows you what danger looks like in real life. And when you read her words, I don't know how you cannot think anything other than what if this happens to me. Now let's add another layer. Olivia Nutzi's book is coming out at the same time. This is a book that is exposing the chaos, the ego, and the conspiratorial thinking inside RFK Jr.'s orbit now. Word is she doesn't refer to him by name really either. He's just the politician. But this book is really going to be a problem for RFK Jr. He's going to have to dodge it and dance around it. Cheryl Hines, his wife, her book already came out earlier. She has already worked on damage control for this book coming out, but the timing of this book after this essay is horrible for RFK Jr. The timing couldn't be worse because it is where the collision happens. Nutzi hits his political credibility. Tatiana hits his moral credibility. We don't know what Olivia Nuzi is going to say about their relationship. Nutzi wrote for New York magazine, Lizza for Politico. Those two collided. That relationship broke down. Now Ryan Lizza has his whole point of view on it, which is against Olivia. Olivia has the book coming out. Now this book is being sent to me, so there will be more on this book in the future. But the timing could not be worse for RFK Jr. and Tatiana Schlossberg because he cannot defend against both, not without looking either heartless or dishonest. He's going to go underground as deeply as he can and probably not comment at all and hope all of this passes. Now let's look at the media cycle. Right now, we're still in the emotional wave of this story. It's now been well over a week. Any parent reading that, it hurts. And me as a parent, I immediately thought about young kids when I had young kids, and I can't imagine thinking about leaving them when they're young. But I resonated more with Carolyn Kennedy, the mother. I can't imagine losing a child to leukemia in her 30s. It's just devastating. So it's not surprising that this story went everywhere. But once the emotional piece of it hit, the next wave is calling out RFK Jr. about the cuts to cancer research. Then you're going to get the stories about well, what is the inversion three mutation, the rare genetic anomaly from this form of leukemia? What is acute myeloid leukemia? What does this terminal cancer diagnosis mean? Because people want to know, oh, is this something that I could potentially have or my family potentially have? Then after that, you're going to get these stories that are really more pointed towards RFK Jr. This story, as they say, is going to have legs, which is exactly why she wrote it in the layers that she wrote it. She knew it would land. And not just her, it's absolutely her whole family was looking at this. They knew it was going to land in a certain way. They just knew it to time it with the assassination. So first is that emotional wave. The writing becomes this moral document. But then comes the political framing. You know, a Kennedy breaks family science. Tatana Schlossberg's essay is a warning. Inside the Kennedy Divide, there's going to be more of a spotlight on RFK Jr. Why? Because she gave journalists permission. She is a journalist. She's an environmental writer. She worked for the New York Times coming out of Yale. She was the editor of the Yale newspaper. I think her first job out of Yale was working at a local paper in New Jersey. And she worked hard, you know, for as entitled as she was. She was really working hard as a reporter and then a writer. She accomplished much at such a young age. But this personal essay opens the door to everyone to come in and report on anything. She has an essay that has all the dots out there, and anyone is open to connecting them where they see fit. From the policies that RFK Jr. is making that cuts cancer funding to the real human cost. And the last piece is a legacy. The Kennedy mythology comes down to three things service, sacrifice, and belief in science. Tatiana stands firmly on that ground. RFK Jr. does not. When she writes, I watched as Bobby cut nearly a half a billion dollars for research, she's not listing numbers. She is showing a rupture, a split in values between two branches of the same famous family. And if you know the Kennedy family well, you know those two branches are very different. When you split Caroline Kennedy from JFK, RFK, then RFK Jr. up to RFK, and then his mother's Ethel Scakeel. And he comes from that large, large family, I believe, of 12 kids. And all those kids who lost their father at a very young age, Rory Kennedy, the youngest, he died before she was even born. She was named after him. They didn't grow up with a father. And if you read anything about the Kennedy's, you know that they just ran wild, including RFK Jr. This essay, without ever raising her voice, I believe is the real Kennedy legacy. Science, compassion, courage, not the chaos her cousin has aligned himself with. So the long tail, here's what happens next. Reporters will quote her essay every single time RFK Jr. comments on vaccines, healthcare, or science. She writes, quote, believe in miracles and cures and healing wells. She writes of hope in the face of sabotage. Historians will place her essay next to the moments that defined her family's public life because the essay isn't the whole story. We still have the second half of this essay when it's no longer written by Tatiana Schlossberg. It was written by the late Tatiana Schlossberg. When that news hits, RFK Jr. is going to have a lot more problems that he has to deal with. Added to all of this, which isn't part of the conversation yet, but will be, in February, Ryan Murphy has a television show coming out about JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bassett Kennedy, their relationship, and what led to those two being killed in that plane crash that he was piloting from New Jersey on the way to Martha's Vineyard in July of 1999. If Tatiana's death transpires around that time frame, I mean, my goodness, the Kennedy name is going to overtake the news cycle. Analysts and political analysts are going to use her passing to mark the break between the Kennedy mythos and the RFK Junior fringe movement. I think we're going to really get this severing from that family. And voters who once saw him as an outsider will face a harder question. What kind of outsider ignores the suffering inside his own extended family? I don't see RFK having a political future after this, after he leaves this administration. So if you want the short version, here it is. Olivia Nuzi with this book coming out soon, she's hitting him with truth from the outside. Tatiana is hitting with truth from the inside. And when the inside voice speaks in pain, everyone's gonna listen.