Once a "never-Trumper," Vice President JD Vance is a very different man than the one who walked the halls of Yale. Does his wife, Usha Vance, recognize the man she married? Here's what we know about their relationship.
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00:00Once a never-Trumper, Vice President J.D. Vance is a very different man than the one
00:05who walked the halls of Yale. Does his wife, Usha Vance, recognize the man she married?
00:09Here's what we know about their relationship.
00:11For critics of J.D. and Usha Vance's marriage, their different religious beliefs might be
00:15the first red flag. J.D. was raised Christian, whereas Usha grew up in a Hindu household.
00:20When the happy couple got married in 2014, they held two different ceremonies to honor
00:24both of their religious beliefs. J.D. eventually converted to Catholicism in 2019, and later
00:28admitted to the New York Times that, while Usha supported his decision, she has not converted.
00:34Furthermore, his own conversion placed more responsibilities on her, since she felt obligated
00:38to care for their children at church. He said in the interview,
00:40"...I feel terrible for my wife because we go to church almost every Sunday unless we're
00:44on the road."
00:45Usha apparently has been nothing but supportive, but during an interview with Fox News, she
00:49confessed that practicing different religions does require some thorough communication between
00:53her and her husband. She told Fox,
00:55"...there are a lot of things that we just agree on, I think, especially when it comes
00:58to family life, how to raise our kids. So I think the answer really is that we just
01:02talk a lot."
01:03J.D. Vance famously documented his turbulent upbringing and the effect it has had on his
01:07life in the best-selling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. He went into some detail on how it
01:11affected his relationship with Usha, too. He described himself as a delayed explosion
01:16and added that therapy didn't work for him. Instead, Usha became the one who kept J.D.
01:20in check. The VP wrote,
01:22"...I can be diffused, but only with skill and precision. It's not just that I've learned
01:26to control myself, but that Usha has learned how to manage me."
01:29Some might argue that this doesn't exactly sound like a healthy dynamic. He even recalled
01:33lashing out at her after botching a job interview. Usha, meanwhile, shared in an interview prior
01:38to her husband's boss winning the 2025 election that she doesn't agree with everything J.D.
01:42and Donald Trump stand for.
01:44"...So we come to different conclusions all the time, but that's part of the fun of being
01:49married."
01:50Vance also emphasized that she still trusts J.D., even when they disagree. Usha became
01:55the victim of racist attacks the moment her husband was announced as Donald Trump's running
01:59mate, with J.D. at one point clapping back at the haters with the simple but efficient
02:03retort,
02:04"...she's out of your league."
02:05While making an appearance on The Megyn Kelly Show, the best-selling author addressed some
02:08of the vitriol his wife had to deal with since the couple was thrust into the international
02:12spotlight.
02:13"...Obviously she's not a white person, and we've been acute attacked by some white supremacists
02:17over that."
02:18Vance was likely referring to Nick Fuentes, who filmed a long-winded rant about the Vances,
02:22and especially Usha's Indian heritage.
02:24"...J.D. Vance also has a non-white wife, an Indian wife, and a kid named Vivek."
02:32With J.D., Usha, and their kids now officially second family of the United States, pundits
02:36and the press alike are eager to know what J.D. and Usha's bond is really like, and this
02:40has likely put their marriage under serious pressure.
02:43When you ask their friends and former classmates, most accounts have the same thing in common.
02:47J.D. and Usha are two very different people.
02:49A former Yale classmate of Usha's told the Daily Beast,
02:52"...I never thought of her as someone who would run for office.
02:54In that way, they're the perfect combination, because J.D. always did like the spotlight."
02:58Whether or not that actually makes them a good match is debatable.
03:01Usha told Fox News in June 2024, about a month before her husband got tapped for VP, that
03:06she wasn't exactly excited, reasoning,
03:08"...I'm not raring to change anything about our lives right now."
03:11Thus, the eventual outcome probably isn't what Usha hoped for.
03:14J.D.'s nomination shoved her into the spotlight, forced Usha to back his sometimes controversial
03:19comments and field negative press, not exactly the dream life of someone just looking to
03:23keep a low profile.
03:24In fact, in a 2024 interview with Fox News, Usha defended J.D.'s characterization of progressive
03:29voters and leaders as childless cat ladies, saying that he was trying to make a point.
03:33"...He made a quip in service of making a point that he wanted to make that was substantive."
03:38Once J.D. Vance got selected as Donald Trump's 2024 running mate, Usha Vance's life was turned
03:42completely upside down.
03:45She went from being an everyday attorney to her husband's unofficial advisor, according
03:48to family friend Jay Shabria, who spoke to USA Today.
03:51Other sources even warned that Usha was in danger of fading into the background as her
03:55husband's public profile grew, in part to protect her three small children.
03:59More interestingly, however, was Usha's decision to quit her prestigious job at Munger, Tolles,
04:04and Olsen when her husband got selected for Trump's cabinet.
04:07Giving up your career while your husband gets to advance his to incredible new heights is
04:11no small sacrifice.
04:12Usha hinted at why she decided to quit her job during a chat with NBC News.
04:16She told NBC,
04:17"...The thing that J.D. asked, and the thing that I certainly agreed to do, is to keep
04:21him company, to have company, someone to talk to in between, and someone to talk to you
04:24about things that are either entirely unrelated to the events, or just maybe to get my perception
04:29on how a particular rally went."