Tyler James Williams Recalls 'Dark Place' After Crohn's Disease Led to 3 Surgeries in 3 Months (Exclusive) Vanessa EtienneSeptember 30, 2025 at 12:01 AM 0 Chad Salvador/Variety via Getty Tyler James Williams Tyler James Williams opens up to PEOPLE exclusively about his battle with Crohn's disease, w...
- - Tyler James Williams Recalls 'Dark Place' After Crohn's Disease Led to 3 Surgeries in 3 Months (Exclusive)
Vanessa EtienneSeptember 30, 2025 at 12:01 AM
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Tyler James Williams -
Tyler James Williams opens up to PEOPLE exclusively about his battle with Crohn's disease, which he was diagnosed with in August 2015
He recalls how difficult it was being hospitalized and undergoing multiple surgeries that he says could've been avoided if he had managed his health earlier
The actor is the face of AbbVie's new "Beyond a Gut Feeling" campaign, sharing his story to open the door to more conversations about inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
After unknowingly battling a chronic illness for years, Tyler James Williams is opening up about his difficult health journey to make sure others never have to go through what he did.
Speaking exclusively to PEOPLE, the Abbott Elementary actor, 32, is introduced as the face of AbbVie's new "Beyond a Gut Feeling" campaign. It aims to encourage inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients to have meaningful conversations with their doctors about long-term treatment goals.
"I've been looking for a real actionable way to tell my story, my IBD journey, because I felt like things happened with me that didn't necessarily need to because of the steps that I took," he tells PEOPLE.
"I spent a portion of my life and career in wild amounts of discomfort and pain, only to find out that had I had a more in-depth conversation with a gastroenterologist, a lot of that could have either been treated more directly or avoided," he says. "So I don't want anybody who's in the position that I was in previously to have to go through the same things."
AbbVie
Tyler James Williams for AbbVie's "Beyond a Gut Feeling" campaign
Williams' journey began in August 2015 when he was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, just two months before he turned 23. However, now knowing more about his condition, the Golden Globe winner recognizes that his first major flare-up happened when he was just 19, and he showed a number of signs of the disease throughout his childhood.
"I've experienced some of the milder symptoms of the disease, but then also some of the very extremes as well," he says. "But so much of that was due to the neglect of not treating the disease ahead of time."
Crohn's is a form of IBD that causes inflammation in the digestive tract, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The disease affects more than half a million people in the United States.
Typically caused by a sensitive immune system — which confuses innocuous bacteria for harmful pathogens — symptoms include fever, fatigue, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, loss of appetite and weight loss, anemia, skin changes, arthritis and more. If left untreated, Crohn's disease can be life-threatening.
"On one of my first hospitalizations, I went in and I was waiting for the doctor to give me some kind of big, really scary diagnosis," Williams recalls. "He mentioned Crohn's disease and I didn't know what that was. So although it was explained to me, there was a certain level of seriousness I just didn't take to it."
"I thought I could just work through it until ultimately I ended up in such an acute position of pain because the disease was kind of running wild."
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Tyler James Williams
Shortly after his diagnosis, WIlliams was in and out of the hospital every two weeks throughout the fall, until the new year. His symptoms became so severe that in January 2016 he required surgery. Surgery for Crohn's disease involves removing a damaged portion of the digestive tract and reconnecting the healthy sections.
"I needed to have three surgeries over the course of three months and was hospitalized on both the east and west coast for the better part of a year," the actor says.
But it wasn't until his second surgery that Williams came to realize how serious his disease was. And he attributes that delay simply to his lack of education, as well as not knowing anyone else with the same diagnosis.
"I just had never heard of it or when I had heard of IBD, it was used as a punchline of a joke in a movie but wasn't presented as something that you couldn't get past and work through," he explains. "So I kind of took it as like, 'Oh, this is just my normal, I just have to deal with these symptoms. I'm gonna have to periodically go in and out of the hospital.' And that doesn't have to be the case."
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Williams admits that going through that journey blind started to take a toll on his mental health.
"There's a unique type of depression that comes with, 'I'm the only one going through this.' I think that was, from a mental health point of view, one of the lowest places I've ever been," he shares. "A combination of feeling very alone in something and then also the mental toll that comes with dealing with a physical disease. I was in a really dark place for a while feeling like there was no way to get over this hump or to ever feel better."
AbbVie
Tyler James Williams for AbbVie's "Beyond a Gut Feeling" campaign
During that time, in addition to his symptoms, the Everybody Hates Chris alum also had periods where he was unable to eat or drink anything for two weeks, and required an ostomy for six weeks. He was even concerned about his career being in jeopardy.
"It was very difficult to navigate… it took me a good year and a half to bounce back from there," he says, noting that the journey ultimately gave him a better perspective on his health and acting fast when things aren't right.
"I'm having a lot of conversations with my doctors — way more than I did when I was younger. I think there's this weird mentality that young people have, which is you go to your doctor when things are absolutely the worst they can possibly be or not at all," he explains. "But then as you get older you realize that building that relationship with your doctor and asking them about treatment options, what you're feeling and what you're going through really changes the game."
Today, Williams prioritizes living a well-rounded lifestyle by working out regularly, watching what he eats and maintaining a good and healthy metabolism, which he says is crucial for Crohn's disease.
But he stresses that none of this is for "aesthetic" purposes. It's in order to make sure he doesn't have any more flare-ups.
"I think I've become very in tune with my body and listening to what my body is saying," he explains. "So I'm on medication and doing well. I've been in what we refer to as remission for at least the last year and a half, if not two years. My gastroenterologists are really happy with where I'm at."
"It took a while to get here though. There was a long time I didn't think I could get to this place where I felt what other people feel, what I describe as normal," he says with a laugh. "And it's a beautiful place to be now."
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Tyler James Williams
As he begins to share his story more, Williams hopes he's able to open the door to more conversations about IBD.
"There are people who are suffering much like I was because they just don't know how to talk about it," the actor tells PEOPLE. "I can understand that people have a hesitancy to talk about their digestive systems. But I hope that by me talking about this more frequently, it breaks that wall down a little bit."
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Additionally, Williams wants to become a face for the conversation so that others who get diagnosed can see that there's "hope for the future."
"I hope that somebody can hear the word Crohn's disease from their gastroenterologist one day and go, 'Oh, that thing that Tyler James Williams has.' Because I think if people can put a face to their own symptoms, they can understand, one, you're not alone, and two, it can get better."
"There will be days that are very, very hard, but you'll be all right," he adds.
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