Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt Reacts to Cousin Tatiana Schlossberg’s Terminal Cancer Diagnosis: “Tears and Anger Reading This Is Her Reality”

Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt is expressing heartbreak and deep admiration for her cousin, journalist Tatiana Schlossberg, after the 34-year-old publicly revealed she has been battling terminal acute myeloid leukemia for the past year and a half.

On November 22, Schlossberg — granddaughter of former President John F. Kennedy and daughter of Caroline Kennedy — published an emotional essay in The New Yorker. She revealed that she was diagnosed shortly after giving birth to her second child in May 2024 and learned that she carries a rare mutation, inversion 3, typically found in much older patients.

“Every doctor asked me if I had spent a lot of time at Ground Zero, given how common blood cancers are among first responders,” Schlossberg wrote. “I was in New York on 9/11 in sixth grade, but I didn’t visit the site until years later. I am not elderly. I had just turned 34.”

As the essay began making headlines, Schwarzenegger shared a heartfelt message on Instagram, praising her cousin’s courage and vulnerability.

“This is a profound piece written by my extraordinary cousin Tatiana,” she wrote. “I have only tears and anger reading that this is her reality. She has lived this experience with so much grace, and I am in awe of her as a human, mother, wife, daughter, writer, and fighter.”

The daughter of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver also urged followers to read Schlossberg’s essay, noting that it sheds light on the real consequences of government cuts to medical research and patient care.

“I am forever grateful for the doctors and nurses helping her,” Katherine added, emphasizing how ongoing funding cuts create fear and uncertainty for patients like her cousin.

Shriver, Schlossberg’s aunt, echoed the sentiment in her own Instagram post, calling the essay “extraordinary” and a powerful reminder that life itself is a blessing.

“If you read only one thing today, let it be this,” Shriver wrote. “Tatiana’s story is many things — an ode to frontline medical workers, a breathtaking account of resilience, and a reminder to cherish the life you have right now.”

In her essay, Schlossberg also issued a pointed criticism toward her cousin, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., calling him “an embarrassment to me and the rest of my immediate family.”

She condemned his decisions to cut nearly half a billion dollars in mRNA research — technology she noted could be used in cancer treatments — and billions more from the National Institutes of Health. She described her fear as clinical trials were canceled and funding for leukemia and bone marrow research became uncertain.

“I worried about the trials that were my only shot at remission,” she wrote.

Schlossberg also revealed that Mifepristone, a medication she received early in her illness to stop postpartum hemorrhaging, is now under FDA review — a move she says was pushed by RFK Jr.

“I freeze when I think about what would have happened if it hadn’t been available,” she wrote. “Millions of women rely on it to save their lives or receive the care they deserve.”