In her first interview since suffering a gunshot to the head last January, Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, open up about Giffords’ inspirational story of survival and recovery.
“It is a love story, the two of them,” Diane Sawyer tells ABC News in a preview of her interview with the couple on tonight’s “20/20” special. “What he [Kelly] does when no one thinks for sure she can surface, he just throws a rope and he is pulling her out, and she is willing her way through this.”
Giffords nearly lost her life on January 8 when a gunman went on a shooting spree outside an Tucson, Arizona, supermarket, wounding 13 people and killing six. Her recovery over the following months has been nothing short of amazing –- but exceptionally difficult.
The “20/20” special reveals emotional video of the congresswoman’s exhausting physical therapy sessions in the hospital, during which she fought to re-learn how to walk and speak. Sawyer says Kelly videotaped his wife’s progress “because he said, ‘She’s going to recover and ask me what happened. I know she will recover. Failure’s not an option.’”
One of the more surprising tools that aided Giffords’ rehab? Music. ABC News says Giffords practiced singing songs like Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’” and, according to Sawyer, “Girls [Just] Want to Have Fun.” Humor also played a big role, with Giffords making the occasional joke during her therapy sessions, and Kelly sticking a “No Crying” sign on his wife’s hospital room door, the news organization says.
During their interview, Giffords calls Kelly “brave.” “Thank you,” he says, “that’s what I think of when I think of you, too.” “Thank you,” she replies through a big smile.
Kelly still holds out hope that he and his wife might eventually have a child together, possibly through surrogacy, ABC News says. "It's something we will continue to talk about, and I think we'll know when the time is right. It's not today, but it could be a year from now," Kelly says, according to ABC.
Meanwhile, Sawyer says Giffords also explains during the interview what steps she thinks she needs to take to eventually make a return to Congress. For now, she and her husband have released a new book, “Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope,” available Tuesday.
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