Usha Vance Seen Without Wedding Ring, Addresses Split Rumors

After Usha Vance was spotted without her wedding ring, rumors about her marriage to Vice President JD Vance began to swirl. A spokesperson for the second lady spoke to them.

The second lady, 39, visited Camp Lejeune, a military training center in Jacksonville, North Carolina, alongside first lady Melania Trump on Wednesday (November 19). Usha did not wear her wedding ring during the appearance, and after photos from the outing were published, rumors of problems in her marriage to the vice president, 41, gained momentum on social media.

Amid speculation, a spokesperson for the second lady — who is very private and rarely speaks with the press — addressed the ringless appearance in a statement to PEOPLE.

The spokesperson said Usha is “a mother of three young children, who does a lot of dishes, gives a lot of baths and sometimes forgets her ring.”

Usha and JD have been married since 2014 and share three children: sons Ewan, 8, and Vivek, 5, and daughter Mirabel, 3.

Rumors that the couple had split were also fueled by the vice president’s embrace with Erika Kirk, the widow of right-wing political organizer Charlie Kirk, which went viral in late October.

Weeks after Charlie’s assassination at a Turning Point USA event, Erika — who took his place as Turning Point CEO — opened a stop on the University of Mississippi tour with a tearful speech, during which she said she saw “similarities” between her late husband and JD while introducing the vice president.

Shortly after, Erika and JD shared a hug on stage in a moment that went viral.

“No one will ever replace my husband. But I see some similarities between my husband in JD and in Vice President JD Vance. It’s true. And that’s why I’m lucky enough to be able to introduce him tonight,” she said at the Oct. 29 event before giving JD an intimate kiss.

After hugging the Vice President tightly, Erika moved her hand to the back of his head and her hands briefly rested on his waist. The greeting surprised many netizens and spawned a series of viral posts analyzing their hand placement and debating whether the hug was appropriate for the situation, given Erika’s recent loss.

The Turning Point CEO previously said JD had “been a blessing” following the death of her husband and praised him and Usha for their support.

“He’s been a blessing. Him and Usha are amazing people. Amazing. With such genuine love,” Erika said in an interview clip recorded before the viral event. She told Fox News host Jesse Watters, “I mean, everything they did for us was so humanized. They were there for us. They were there for us.”

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JD also made headlines for his comments about his wife’s religion during the Oct. 29 Turning Point event.

After a student asked the vice president about his multifaith household, he admitted that he hoped his wife, who was raised and still considers herself Hindu, would one day convert to Catholicism as he did in his 30s. (Prior to his conversion, JD described himself as an atheist.)

“How do you teach your children not to put your religion before their mother’s?…Why do we make Christianity one of the main things you have to have in common to be one of you, to show that I love America just like you do?” » asked the student.

“Here, everyone has to find their own arrangements,” JD responded in part. “The way we came to our agreement is that she’s my best friend. We talk to each other about all this. So we decided to raise our children Christian.”

He continued, “Most Sundays, Usha accompanies me to church. Do I hope, ultimately, that she will somehow be moved by the same thing that I was moved into by the church? Yes, honestly, I do, because I believe in the Christian gospel and I hope that one day my wife will come to see it the same way. But if that’s not the case, then God says that all everyone has free will and so I don’t have a problem with that.”

The vice president concluded his response by stating that “one of the most important Christian principles is respect for free will.”