Former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard shared an update on Thursday about her husband’s struggle with a rare bone cancer, saying “the battle isn’t over yet.” 

Gabbard, who left her position at DNI after her husband Abraham Williams was diagnosed with a rare cancer called sacral chordoma, posted a video to X detailing finding out about his diagnosis and his recovery after surgery. 

“Earlier this year, my husband Abraham was diagnosed with cancer. I picked up the phone and Abraham’s voice was different. He said that he got a call from his doctor and the doctor told him that he has sacral chordoma, a very, very rare one in a million type of cancer,” Gabbard said. “We talked with our doctors and said, ‘Okay, what are our options?’ One is a very invasive surgery to remove the bottom part of Abraham’s sacrum and his tailbone, and the other option was radiation. So we scheduled the surgery, as quickly as we could.” 

The video shows footage of Williams before and after surgery, with Gabbard by his side supporting and comforting him.

“They started, preparing him for this surgery. I was so happy to see him when they wheeled him back into that recovery room, but it was also really scary, which I didn’t expect,” she continued. “He’d been under heavy anesthesia for almost eight hours. His body, as he started to come out, started reacting to the drugs that were in his body. It was tough.” 

Gabbard detailed how her husband pushed to get up several times the night after his surgery, and he was able to move very slowly with the help of nurses, stopping to throw up every few steps. 

“But he kept going. He refused to take any narcotic pain medication, and so he really had to push through the postoperative pain,” she said.

Gabbard said her husband’s pathologist and doctors said a few weeks after the surgery that “they are confident that they were able to cut out all of the cancerous bone and tissue.” 

“So here we are now, almost three months after, and he started a very rigorous physical therapy program,” she said, with footage of Williams in the gym exercising. “He gets frustrated a lot because he wants to be able to make progress faster, and sometimes he’s pushed a little bit too far, but overall, Abraham is progressing very well.” 

Gabbard said even though her husband had a successful surgery, “the reality is that the battle isn’t over yet.”

“He’ll have to continue to get frequent MRIs to keep an eye on whether or not this cancer is coming back either in the same place or in other parts of his body,” she said.

“We are so grateful to God for his unconditional love, for being our shelter, for being our peace and our strength. We want to say thank you to the doctors, the surgeon, the pathologist, the anesthesiologist, we want to say thank you to all of you sharing the most beautiful prayers and well wishes with us. Mahalo nui loa to you all,” the former congresswoman from Hawaii concluded. 

At the end of the video, Gabbard becomes visibly emotional and tears up. Her husband comes into the frame to wrap his arms around her and the couple says they love each other before the video ends.  

Gabbard announced her resignation in May after her husband was diagnosed, with her last day in the position on June 30. 

She said in her formal resignation letter that she is “deeply grateful for the trust you placed in me and the for the opportunity to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for the last year and a half.”

Gabbard said at the time that her husband “faces major challenges in the coming weeks and months.”

“At this time, I must step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him through this battle,” Gabbard’s letter read. 

“Abraham has been my rock throughout our eleven years of marriage — standing steadfast through my deployment to East Africa on a Joint Special Operations mission, multiple political campaigns, and now my service in this role,” she wrote. “His strength and love have sustained me through every challenge. I cannot in good conscience ask him to face this fight alone while I continue in this demanding and time-consuming position.”

Gabbard worked to transform the intelligence community, reduce its size, and unravel diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in the intelligence community. She declassified documents related the Trump-Russia “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation, stating that it showed the Obama administration had used information to undermine Trump’s 2016 presidential victory. Gabbard also conducted investigations into election security, as Breitbart News reported exclusively.

Gabbard was additionally working to declassify a FISA Court opinion that may reveal the court’s concerns with how the federal government conducts searches using Section 702.

Jay Clayton was sworn in as DNI director earlier this month, replacing Housing Director Bill Pulte who temporarily took over the role after Gabbard’s departure.

Clayton served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York before assuming the post of intelligence chief. He is also the former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and he previously led Sullivan & Cromwell.

Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.