J.D. Vance says he hopes wife Usha will embrace Christianity
When asked about interfaith families at a Turning Point USA event, Vice President J.D. Vance said he hopes his wife, Usha, will embrace Christianity.
When she visited Camp Lejeune with first lady Melania Trump earlier this week, her second daughter, Usha Vance, did not have a ring on her ring finger.
The two were photographed walking together in North Carolina on November 19th. And the second lady, who is the wife of Vice President J.D. Vance, was also seen talking to the military and the first lady without her wedding ring. Despite the online controversy, Vance has been photographed numerous times with and without his wedding ring.
By Friday, Nov. 21, rumors of a breakup had surfaced on social media. Speculation about the second couple’s marital status intensified. But Vance, 39, the first of her kind to be a second lady, is a reserved and hesitant public figure who values motherhood over statesmanship.
A spokesperson for the second woman told USA TODAY in a statement on Nov. 21 that Vance is “a mother of three young children who cooks a lot, bathes a lot and sometimes forgets her ring.” The Vance family has three children: Ewan, 8, Vivec, 5, and Mirabel, 3.
Once viewed simply through the lens of vows, Vance is now part of a growing bipartisan group of modern American women resisting the structures and constraints of arranged marriages.
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, has shed the gender-stereotyped label of “woman” and reconsidered her role as “first partner.” Michelle Obama has been outspoken about the burdens of being first lady during President Donald Trump’s second term. Rama Dowaj, who is married to New York Mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani, is an accomplished illustrator but never speaks to the press, instead making statements through her Instagram artwork.
Like Melania Trump, she rarely attends interviews. In addition to appearing on Meghan McCain’s podcast for an hour and sitting alongside her former “The View” co-host as she announced her third pregnancy, Vance has not spoken to the press since her husband took office.
“Interesting. Usha Vance was without her wedding ring yesterday at Camp Lejeune,” Democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko told X, giving the wrong date of Vance’s visit. “Is JD sleeping on the sofa?” the Democratic Party’s official X account revealed.
Usha Vance doesn’t wear a wedding ring. Why do we care?
Born and raised in San Diego, Usha Chilkuri is the child of Hindu Indian immigrants, and both of her parents are educators.
The Vances met as students at Yale Law School, where she excelled. “She seemed like some kind of genetic anomaly: bright, hardworking, tall, beautiful, all the positive qualities a human being should have,” her husband wrote in his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, calling the second lady a “spiritual guide.”
Before President Trump selected her husband as his running mate, Vance was an attorney at Munger, Tolles & Olson, specializing in litigation and corporate law. After Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Vance moved his family from his home in Cincinnati’s East Walnut Hills neighborhood to the U.S. Naval Observatory, the vice presidential family’s traditional home.
While second lady, Vance was still the subject of rumors about the health of her marriage. Kennedy’s successor, Jack Schlossberg, who is currently running for Congress, sparked backlash after joking that he was having a baby with Vance.
The internet was furious after Charlie Kirk’s widow Erica hugged her husband. Vice President Vance made headlines last month when he said he hoped his wife would convert to Catholicism.
“In the end, do I hope that she will be moved in some way in the same way that I was moved by the church? Well, honestly, I hope so because I believe in the Christian gospel. I hope that eventually my wife will see the gospel in the same way,” said J.D. Vance, who spoke at the Turning Point USA event at the University of Mississippi on Oct. 29.
“But if she doesn’t, that doesn’t matter to me because God says, ‘Everyone has free will.’ That’s something you work out with your friends, family, and loved ones,” he added.
Then, of course, the lost ring.
There are countless reasons why you might choose not to wear a wedding ring. They took it off to clean. It felt tight. They put it on the bathroom counter before going to bed that night. In movies, wives take off their wedding rings after arguments or fights. In real life, many people forget.
Vance is busy doing the dishes and bathing the children. In America, it is also possible that the second woman’s ring and story belong to the first woman.
Amaris: Aisha Bagki Bagki
