Gabby Giffords details how near-fatal shooting 15 years ago impacted marriage to husband Mark Kelly

Former congresswoman Gabby Giffords and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly have reflected on how their marriage has evolved since Giffords was nearly assassinated in a shooting 15 years ago.

Six people were killed and 13 others, including Giffords, were wounded in a mass shooting at a January 8, 2011, political event in Tucson, Arizona. Giffords, who was a Democratic Arizona congresswoman at the time, was speaking to her constituents when she was shot in the head, leaving her to recover from serious injuries with the help of Kelly, her husband since 2007.

In an interview on Good Morning America marking the 15th anniversary of the shooting, Giffords and Kelly said their relationship grew stronger in the wake of the shooting.

“We’re a team, we’re a team, we’re a team,” Giffords, 55, said with a smile, while raising up her hand clasped in Kelly’s.

The 61-year-old retired NASA astronaut agreed, adding, “We’re more of a team now, because when Gabby was shot, I was living in Houston, training for my last space shuttle mission. And Gabby was in Congress and we didn’t even live together until January 8, 2011. From that day on, we’ve been together.”

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Giffords underwent emergency brain surgery and was placed in an induced coma after she was shot. She stayed in the hospital for about five months following the shooting, and had to relearn how to walk and talk.

In April of that year, she traveled to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to witness the launch of Kelly’s final Space Shuttle mission, where he wore Giffords’ wedding ring into space.

Before the tragedy, Kelly and Giffords were open about being in a long-distance marriage, with Kelly in Houston and Giffords cycling between Arizona and Washington D.C.

In their wedding announcement in the New York Times, Kelly said ahead of their ceremony: “The longest amount of time we’ve spent together is probably a couple of weeks at a stretch. We won’t always live this way, but this is how we started. It’s what we’ve always done. It teaches you not to sweat the small stuff.”

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Now, the couple lives together in Tucson, where they work together as advocates for gun safety in America after Giffords founded a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing gun violence in 2013.

“Today marks 15 years since a gunman tried to assassinate me. He shot 19 people and killed six,” Giffords wrote Thursday on X, remembering victims Christina-Taylor Green, 9, Gabriel Zimmerman, 30, John Roll, 63, Dorothy Morris, 76, Dorwan Stoddard, 76, and Phyllis Schneck, 79.

“I almost died, and think of those who did every day. As I look back on the years since I was shot, I’m reminded of how much is possible when we reach across divides and find common purpose,” she wrote.

“Together, we built a movement to end America’s gun violence crisis and have passed more than 820 gun safety laws across the nation. I’ll never stop fighting. This mission is for Christina-Taylor, Gabe, John, Phyllis, Dorothy, and Dorwan—and every single victim and survivor of gun violence. We will build the safer future they deserved. I’m sure of it.”