JD Vance brushes off speculation about his marriage
By Alejandra Jaramillo, CNN
(CNN) — Vice President JD Vance said he and second lady Usha Vance are largely amused by the online chatter dissecting their marriage, including a recent spate of headlines over photos of her without a wedding ring.
“I think that we kind of get a kick out of it,” Vance told NBC News in an interview released on Friday. When asked whether he was frustrated by the tabloid-style attention, he said, “With anything in life, you take the good with the bad.”
His comments come amid online speculation about the vice president’s marriage after Usha Vance was photographed without her ring during a visit to a military base with first lady Melania Trump. The visit was not the first time that the couple has garnered interest online.
JD Vance was also recently forced to clarify comments about his wife’s faith after ruffling some feathers when he said he hoped she would one day be moved “by the Christian gospel” as he was.
“She is not a Christian and has no plans to convert, but like many people in an interfaith marriage – or any interfaith relationship – I hope she may one day see things as I do. Regardless, I’ll continue to love and support her and talk to her about faith and life and everything else, because she’s my wife,” he wrote on social media in October.
In the NBC interview, the vice president said their marriage was “as strong as it’s ever been.”
“I think Usha’s really taken to it, and it’s been kind of cool to see how she’s developed and evolved in this new role,” the vice president told NBC News.
Born and raised in San Diego by parents who emigrated from India, Usha Vance is the first person of color to be second lady. She’s also the youngest second lady to hold the role since the Truman administration and the first to raise school-age children at the Naval Observatory since the Clinton era. The couple have three children small children.
She met her husband while they were students at Yale University and left a successful legal career to take on the ceremonial role of second lady.
Since JD Vance took office as vice president, the second lady has remained private but joined her husband on key trips in the US and abroad, all while becoming a public figure in her own right.
The vice president, meanwhile, has also been the subject of intense scrutiny, with President Donald Trump acknowledging Vance as the “most likely” heir apparent to the “Make America Great Again” movement.
As CNN has previously reported, the vice president has had a sizeable role in the administration, serving as a top surrogate selling Trump’s foreign policy.
Pressed by NBC News on whether coverage about their marriage has been difficult for the couple, Vance dismissed the idea.
“It’s funny,” he said. “I actually don’t think that it’s tough.”
The vice president then spoke about a recent trip to the White House, saying Usha Vance realized she had again left her rings upstairs after taking a shower. She considered going back for them due to the speculation, but he told her not to.
“We thought that whole viral social media cycle was kind of funny,” he said.
The-CNN-Wire
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