The Tragic Truth About Tulsi Gabbard

Throughout her journey as a rising political star, Tulsi Gabbard has dealt with significant heartache. In some instances, she's preferred to keep those sadder moments close to her chest. However, there have also been times when she's recognized the power in talking about it. 

We'll start with Gabbard's military background — something she has zero regrets about, but which she acknowledges required a ton of sacrifice. At the time she signed up for the Hawaii Army National Guard, she was a newlywed and a member of the Hawaii state legislature. As she told Vogue in 2013, the latter didn't exactly go down well with her advisors at the time. Quite the opposite, they even tried to stop her from deploying in 2004. She fought to do so anyway and was deployed on two tours, after which she managed to make an impressive career comeback. However, her marriage wasn't quite as easy to salvage. Speaking to Vogue of the divorce that ensued when she returned, Gabbard shared, "It was sad and difficult." That's not to say she had any ill feelings towards her ex-husband, though. On the contrary, she was incredibly empathetic. Pointing out that she and her first husband had been apart for almost two years, she said, "The stress that's placed on those who are left at home — it's difficult to communicate what that means."

Of course, it does bear mentioning that the Democrat-turned-Republican went on to find love again with cinematographer Abraham Williams, and there's no question that her second go has been successful. Both Gabbard and Williams share sweet looks into their marriage on Instagram, and it's safe to say they're smitten. 

Sadly for Tulsi Gabbard and Abraham Williams, one thing that has been missing from their marriage is parenthood — and Gabbard has made it clear that that hasn't been by choice. Speaking to Meghan McCain in a video shared to her Facebook page in May 2024, Gabbard opened up about her fertility struggles. "The diagnosis is 'unexplained infertility,'" she said, adding that in some ways, she found that more devastating because she didn't know if there was anything that could be done to change it. Heartbreakingly, Gabbard also shared that she had undergone IVF without telling most of her loved ones, explaining she once preferred not to talk about it out of shame — like many other women — but that she wanted to help bring an end to the stigma. 

McCain wasn't the only person Gabbard spoke to about IVF in a public setting. She also addressed the matter with Donald Trump in an August 2024 town hall in Wisconsin. Again, she said it wasn't the most pleasant topic for her to get into, revealing that it was "hard to talk about sometimes," per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Even so, she reiterated that even though she and Williams hadn't conceived through IVF, many other families had been more successful, and she asked Trump to address the rumors that he was planning on banning it if he was voted into office. 

ICYMI, Trump denied that he would ban IVF, and went as far as promising to have health insurance companies cover the process, which Gabbard herself had described as cost-prohibitive. Understandably, she appeared visibly moved by his response. "I can't tell you how life-changing that would be for so many families," she said. 

Sadly, infertility wasn't the only heartbreaking topic Tulsi Gabbard had to speak about in 2024. That May, tragedy struck when a loved one, her paternal aunt Caroline Sinavaiana Gabbard, was murdered by a close friend. Tulsi addressed the situation on Instagram in early June, thanking everyone who had reached out to her and opening up about how close she had been to her aunt. "My aunt Caroline was my dad's only sister, and the only relative of ours who lived in Hawaii when I was growing up," she wrote. Tulsi added that she and Caroline had bonded over writing and poetry, which is incredibly special, as her late aunt had been a revered writer, poet, and academic. In fact, some may be aware that Caroline was the very first Samoan academic to have earned a professorship in the U.S.

As for the murder itself, one of Caroline's friends and mentees, award-winning Samoan author Sia Figiel, claimed responsibility for the knife and hammer attack. In a statement to the presiding court in late June, she claimed in Samoan, "I lost my strength because I was possessed by the devil, demons," per Australia's ABC News. Figiel added that the same demons had also told her to commit suicide. The author was given a psychiatric assessment, though details were not made public.

Tulsi did not share any of her thoughts on the investigation. However, her Instagram statement made it clear that the situation had served as a poignant, if painful reminder to the extended Gabbard family. "Life is short. Hold close the ones you love, and make the most of every day we are blessed with life," she wrote. We're wishing the family peace and hope they've been able to find closure.

Shifting away from Tulsi Gabbard's personal life, it's no secret that she took great offense to something Hillary Clinton said about her back in 2019. 

Many may remember that in October 2019, Clinton made allusions on "Campaign HQ with David Plouffe" that someone within the Democratic Party was being set up to serve as a third party in the 2020 elections. "I'm not making any predictions, but I think they've got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate," Clinton said, without mentioning Gabbard's name. Though Clinton's "they" had referred to the Republican party, it was widely reported that she'd been referring to Russia — an assumption not helped by the fact that, when asked to clarify if the Democratic candidate in question was Gabbard, Clinton's spokesperson told CNN, "If the nesting doll fits." Yikes. The spokesperson later clarified that Clinton had been talking about people within the Republican party grooming someone, rather than Russia, but the damage was done.

Needless to say, Gabbard was furious. Taking to X (then known as Twitter), she accused Clinton of trying to damage her reputation. A few months later, she took things even further, filing a lawsuit for defamation. By late May 2020, however, she dropped the lawsuit altogether. That's not to say Gabbard had a change of heart, though. Quite the contrary; in court documents obtained by CNN, her legal team claimed that her decision was based on wanting to shift all her attention to "defeating Donald Trump in 2020, rather than righting the wrongs here." Clearly keen to have the last say, Clinton's spokesperson told the outlet that the entire filing had been a publicity stunt and ended his statement with the Russian translation for "good riddance." Again, yikes. 

In the wake of Hillary Clinton's allusions to Tulsi Gabbard being used as a third party in the 2020 elections, "The View" co-host Joy Behar poked fun at the accusation, saying that the Hawaii politician could indeed be a "useful idiot" to Russia (via Fox News). Once again, Gabbard was less than thrilled — and she made her feelings known when she was a guest on the show. 

Despite being asked a completely different question, Gabbard jumped right into correcting both Clinton and Behar, adding that she found the claim incredibly insulting. "It's offensive to me as a soldier, as an American, as a member of Congress, as a veteran, and frankly, as a woman, to be so demeaned in such a way," she told "The View." 

Unfortunately, Behar made it clear she couldn't stand Gabbard or her point of view and called her out for responding harshly to Clinton, noting that she was a woman, too. Once Gabbard clarified that she'd been responding to Clinton's stance on intervention, Behar asked for proof, prompting even more frustration from the soldier. "Are you serious? Are you serious? I served in the war in Iraq ... that she championed," she quipped. Gabbard closed things off by claiming that she'd been the target of a smear campaign for going against Clinton in the past. Sure enough, back in 2016, Gabbard did step down from the Democratic National Committee so she could endorse Bernie Sanders. Not only that, in the video posted to Sanders' YouTube channel, she called Clinton out for "interventionist wars of regime change." Yeah — something tells us Gabbard and Clinton won't be making nice anytime soon. 

Like we said, Meghan McCain was involved in Tulsi Gabbard's 2024 video about infertility. In addition to the subject matter being extremely personal, McCain also shared at one point in the video that Gabbard had been a houseguest of hers while she underwent IVF. As such, it's safe to say they're very close. However, some may remember that that wasn't always the case. On the contrary, when Gabbard made an appearance on "The View" in early 2019, McCain didn't try to hide her shady side when she criticized Gabbard's stance on intervention in Syria. 

"When you say regime change is hurtful for the country but gassing children isn't more hurtful, it's hard for me to understand where you come from a humanitarian standpoint," McCain snapped, before goading her into saying she believed Bashar al-Assad was an enemy of the U.S. (via Tim Black TV). Gabbard's response? "You're putting words in my mouth that I've never said," she stated, before clarifying that she certainly wasn't in the then-leader of Syria's corner but that she didn't believe his regime was a direct threat to the U.S. 

Evidently, some time after the episode was filmed, Gabbard and McCain buried the hatchet. In fact, at the 2024 Stand with Women event, McCain joked about her friend's return to the show a few months later and shared that her co-hosts had been afraid of Gabbard. McCain also laughingly recounted her reaction to Gabbard calling Behar out the way she had (it's no surprise she loved that: McCain's feud with Joy Behar has continued even after the former left "The View"). With all the tragic moments Gabbard has had over the years, it's nice to see that at least she earned a strong friendship through one of them.