Abraham Williams: US National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard's Husband's Cancer Diagnosis

US national intelligence director, Tulsi Gabbard, announced on May 22 2026 that she will be stepping down from her role. She cited her husband, Abraham Williams’s cancer as the reason for her resignation, writing, "Abraham has been my rock throughout our eleven years of marriage. 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 is an American politician and US military officer who has served as the US national intelligence director since 2025. Prior to assuming this position, Gabbard served as a representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2021.

As the US national intelligence director, Gabbard has "made significant progress at the ODNI”. She began a transformational effort to reshape the Intelligence Community, reducing unnecessary manpower in the agency and saving taxpayers more than $700 million a year. She had also declassified more than half a million pages of government records, including those related to the JFK assassination.

Williams is a cinematographer who has worked on commercials, features, documentaries, music videos and short films. He got to know Gabbard in 2012, when he volunteered to support the shoots for Gabbard's campaign advertisements. “About a year and a half later”, he asked Gabbard out for the first time. The couple eventually got married in 2015 and have been together for more than a decade.

Gabbard announced her resignation on social media platform X, writing that her husband had been “diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer”. She added that she is "deeply grateful for the trust you placed in me and for the opportunity to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for the last year and a half."

In response to her resignation, US President Donald Trump shared on Truth Social that Gabbard had "done an incredible job, and we will miss her". He added that Gabbard "rightfully, wants to be with him, bringing him back to good health as they currently fight a tough battle together." Gabbard’s resignation will be effective as of June 30 2026 and Aaron Lukas, the principal deputy director, will step in as acting director.

At the point of writing, there is no additional information about William’s cancer diagnosis.