Joe Biden, John Kerry attend private funeral for JFK’s granddaughter Tatiana Schlossberg

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Former President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State John Kerry were among a wide circle of political leaders, cultural figures, and media personalities who gathered Monday for the private funeral of Tatiana Schlossberg, the granddaughter of former President John F. Kennedy.

The invitation-only service was held on Monday, January 6, at the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, a Jesuit Catholic parish long associated with prominent New York families. Schlossberg, an environmental journalist and author, died at age 35 after a year-and-a-half-long battle with acute myeloid leukemia.

High-profile political leaders attend private Manhattan service

Biden and his wife, former First Lady Jill Biden, were photographed leaving the church following the service. Kerry, who served as secretary of state under former President Barack Obama and later as a special climate envoy during the Biden administration, was also seen exiting the church.

Several other influential Democratic figures attended the funeral, including longtime Obama adviser David Axelrod, Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, and former New York City mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg.

The service was closed to the public, with security and church officials maintaining a discreet presence as mourners arrived and departed quietly throughout the morning.

Media, arts, and fashion figures join Kennedy family in mourning

The guest list extended beyond politics into media, fashion, and the arts. Late-night television host David Letterman was among those photographed outside the church, along with The New Yorker editor David Remnick.

Fashion designer Carolina Herrera and Grammy-winning musician Jon Batiste were also seen attending the service. “Saturday Night Live” veteran and late-night host Seth Meyers was photographed exiting the church following the mass.

Family members in attendance included Schlossberg’s husband, George Moran; her mother, Caroline Kennedy; her father, Edwin Schlossberg; her sister, Rose Schlossberg; and her cousin, former Representative Joe Kennedy III.

Notably absent from the service was Schlossberg’s uncle, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was not seen outside the church.

Tatiana Schlossberg’s life, career, and public voice

Born and raised in New York City, Tatiana Schlossberg built a career centered on environmental and climate issues. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University and later completed a master’s degree in American history at the University of Oxford.

She went on to work as a journalist and author, contributing to The New Yorker and publishing widely read writing that explored climate change, environmental policy, and generational responsibility.

In 2024, Schlossberg was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. She later shared her experience publicly in a deeply personal essay published by The New Yorker in November 2025, offering a candid account of her illness and its impact on her family.

“My parents and my brother and sister, too, have been raising my children and sitting in my various hospital rooms almost every day for the last year and a half,” she wrote.

A mother’s reflections on illness and legacy

In the essay, Schlossberg revealed that doctors first discovered signs of the disease shortly after she gave birth to her second child, a daughter, when routine blood work showed her white blood cell count “looked strange.”

She and Moran, whom she married in 2017, also shared a young son.

After a doctor told her she might have “a year, maybe” to live, Schlossberg wrote that her thoughts immediately turned to her children.

“My kids, whose faces live permanently on the inside of my eyelids, wouldn’t remember me,” she reflected, adding that while her son might retain fragments of memory, they would likely blur into photographs and stories over time.