Second Lady Usha Vance spoke about her life and marriage to Vice President J.D. Vance in an exclusive interview with USA TODAY.
Meet Usha Vance, the first millennial second lady
Meet Usha Vance, a millennial and the first person of color to remarry.
WASHINGTON – Usha Vance misses a lot about her old life.
She loved being a lawyer and had big dreams beyond working at a firm. She dreams of one day returning to Cincinnati and the home her husband, J.D. Vance, and their three children lived in before he became vice president. That’s their long-term plan, she says.
That doesn’t mean she doesn’t enjoy being second lady. she is having fun And when you quit your job, there are perks that come with it. She reads long books and develops a fitness habit.
In an exclusive interview with USA TODAY, Vance, 39, reflected on the life she left behind more than a year after voters elected her husband to be deputy commander of the nation under President Donald Trump. “Sometimes I’m nostalgic, and sometimes I’m excited to move on.”
Usha Vance is a woman full of self-confidence and confidence, but still constrained by her desire to live a somewhat normal life and by being married to one of the most promising politicians in the Republican Party. His election as vice president has brought him to the top of discussions about the 2028 White House race, but even if he wins, it means Usha Vance may not be able to get back to her old life as quickly as she thought.
The second couple met in their 20s at Yale Law School and married in 2014, before her husband wrote a best-selling memoir that was made into a Netflix movie. By the time her husband entered the national political scene, she had already fathered two of her three children.
She was a high-powered lawyer herself long before her husband won a Senate seat with President Trump’s support in 2022. The San Diego native clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts and future Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals.
Usha Vance continued to work as a civil litigator at Munger, Tolles & Olson, the prestigious firm she left after her husband was chosen as President Trump’s running mate.
The next 18 months tested their mettle and their marriage. Their interracial and interfaith relationship has been in the public eye, with white Christian nationalists and fringe conservatives vilifying Usha Vance’s faith and Indian-American heritage.
The second woman was raised as a Hindu. She is the first person of color to become a second spouse in this country’s 250-year history.
Internet gossip is increasingly spreading unsubstantiated rumors that the couple is in trouble.
“One of the really interesting things about this life is that people love to read the tea leaves, and there’s a kind of industry that builds stories about anything you can imagine,” Usha Vance said.
At one point, in late October while the Vances were visiting Israel, former White House press secretary Jen Psaki suggested that Usha Vance needed to be saved from her husband.
“I think it’s shameful, but of course the second lady can speak for herself,” the vice president said of Psaki, a former Biden aide and MS NOW host,’s comments. J.D. Vance said he was “honored” to have his wife by his side.
A week later, J.D. Vance came under fire for saying at a Turning Point USA event that he wanted his wife to convert to Catholicism. Since then, she has been seen several times without her wedding ring, which has caused a stir.
The Vice President dismissed the ring gate. He said in an interview with NBC News on Dec. 4 that it was unintentional and that the couple was “shocked” by the speculation about their marriage.
Mr. Vance said he was largely indifferent. “When I wear it, I wear it; when I don’t wear it, I don’t wear it,” she stated matter-of-factly in a Dec. 8 interview.
No one would have noticed until her husband won a Senate seat. And those people probably didn’t care.
“Sometimes I’m wearing it, and other times I just went to the gym and took a shower and I’m not wearing it,” Usha Vance said.
Usha Vance said she and her husband “think it’s kind of funny” when people talk about them, but “I don’t think it’s helpful” to track rumors.
“I’d rather live in a sense in my marriage and in the real world than in the fever dream that surrounds it. So it’s kind of a family joke, but it’s not something I spend too much time thinking about,” Usha Vance said.
Usha talks about herself
At the time of her interview with USA TODAY, Usha Vance was preparing to host a holiday party parade. She had the president come the next afternoon for such a reception. The week before, she hosted actor Sylvester Stallone at a party celebrating his recognition as a Kennedy Center Honoree.
She wore a long-sleeved printed silk chiffon SALONI blouse (Mel B in Padma Emerald) with a ruffled collar as she gave a tour of the first floor of the Vice Presidential Residence, paired with black slacks and black flats with patent pointed toes.
Her silver and black hair fell over her shoulders. Her nails were exposed. No polish.
Her husband was at work. The couple’s children, Ewan, Vivec and Mirabel, had just left for school. The family’s 1-year-old dog, Atlas, was on the second floor of the family’s living quarters. He often attends the Second Lady’s staff meetings, but her aides feared he would become a nuisance in the current situation.
Overall, Usha Vance said the house is well soundproofed and her children, ages 8, 5 and 3, treat the entire house like their own. The Vance family is America’s first millennial second family, and their children are the youngest to have lived in the home since 1975.
“They’re making full use of this space,” she said. When there are late-night party guests, “they come down, look, and run back. They sleep really well, so it doesn’t really bother them.”
She talked about their traditions and said that in their family the vice president is the baker. He made chocolate cookies for the Secret Service for Thanksgiving, she said. Although she has never made Christmas cookies with icing, Usha Vance said her husband, 41, made a confetti cake from scratch for a family celebration.
He next plans to make a birthday cake for his daughter Mirabelle’s birthday. Usha Vance said Mirabel and the vice president made tiramisu for her when they dined with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in October. J.D. Vance’s social secretary put it on the menu as “Miramisu.”
Vance also opened up about his Hindu faith, saying he grew up in Southern California with friends from all religious backgrounds. “Everything you can name,” she said.
The Vances plan to spend Christmas with their families. But she also hopes to visit Cincinnati for her children’s winter break, she said. As usual these days, their travel plans depend on what’s going on in the world and where her husband needs to be for work.
“We have continued to work on the house. We treat it as our home and look forward to every opportunity to be there,” Usha Vance said.
She told Meghan McCain in an interview last summer that “in my dream world, eventually” I would be able to move back to Ohio and “live at home and continue my career and other things.”
In a nod to her husband’s political ambitions, she told her daughter, McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, “I’m not going to get married.” “If it happens in four years, I understand. If it happens, at another point in the future, I understand. I’m just going to go along with it and have as much fun as I can.”
Sitting in a leather chair in her living room, the fireplace crackles as Usha Vance details her goals as second lady in an interview with USA TODAY. She said she has made literacy her signature topic and plans to expand her successful summer reading program.
She also looks at ways to improve preschool literacy in families and support schools and families with a growing number of slightly older readers.
“The way I decided to think about this was not to announce an initiative that would get a lot of attention, but to create expectations and controversy that you never know what will come out of it,” said the second woman. “And I would rather focus on projects that I think are achievable, all moving in the same direction, all contributing to the same problem, but can be completed in the time I have in this role.”
She has an example to fall back on. Teacher Jill Biden advocated for community colleges. Artist Karen Pence promoted art therapy. Doug Emhoff taught at Georgetown and devoted himself to combating anti-Semitism after leaving his job as an entertainment lawyer when his wife, Kamala Harris, was elected vice president.
Usha Vance said she took cues from first lady Melania Trump, with whom she recently visited Camp Lejeune military base in North Carolina.
“We get along really well. I kind of enjoy traveling with her and talking to her about parenting in such a crazy life and talking to her about our interests and hobbies and things like that,” Usha Vance said. “And, you know, we’re different people, but we’re different people that we enjoy having conversations with. So that was a really great part of this experience.”
She praised the former fashion model’s approach to the role in which she would eventually find herself.
“She’s very focused on doing things her way, and I think very efficiently,” says Usha Vance.
Melania Trump, 55, focused on her children and stopped bullying during her brash and abusive husband’s first term. She delves deeply into international issues, recently using her platform to call for the repatriation of Russian children forcibly removed from Ukraine.
Usha Vance said the first lady is “fully committed” to every project. “And I think all of them have been very successful.”
“She’s very methodical and takes things one step at a time, so that’s an inspiration for what I’m trying to do in a slightly different area than what she focuses on,” the second woman added.
Is that the job Usha Vance wants, First Lady? “I like my job now,” she said as the interview drew to a close.
Just like her politician husband, Usha Vanth is also sending messages. She lives in the real world.
