Recently, Usha Vance was seen at an official event without her wedding ring, just weeks following her husband JD Vance’s public acknowledgment of the religious differences within their marriage.
During her visit to the Camp Lejeune military base in Richlands, North Carolina, alongside First Lady Melania Trump on Wednesday, the Second Lady was noticeably without her ring.
Photographic evidence captured Usha, 39, disembarking from a plane with her left hand clearly visible, and the absence of her wedding band was apparent.
Further images from her time at Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Air Station New River confirmed that the ring remained absent throughout her entire visit.
In contrast, the Vice President was seen wearing his wedding ring during a speaking engagement in Washington on Thursday.
This comes amidst persistent online speculation about the Vance marriage, which intensified in October after the Vice President was seen sharing a close embrace with Erika Kirk during a memorial service for her husband, right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
The speculation about a possible rift between the Second Couple was fueled by the VP admitting that he has pleaded with his wife to convert from Hinduism: he is a Roman Catholic.
The visit was the first joint engagement for Usha and Melania and was designed to cheer up the troops ahead of Thanksgiving.
Second Lady Usha Vance was seen traveling to Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune on Wednesday with her wedding finger noticeably bare
Usha’s wedding band was missing as she delivered remarks to military personnel on November 19. Meanwhile, husband JD was seen with his wedding ring at a speaking event in Washington the following day
They also went to Lejeune High School and met with students before going to a nearby elementary school for arts and crafts projects with other children.
What’s more, photos of Usha’s previous appearance on November 10 – a joint visit to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center with her husband – show she was not wearing her band at that event either.
As the photos began circulating on X, commenters suggested that Usha may be not-so-subtly indicating her feelings towards her husband, 41.
One user joked that Usha was ‘Quiet Quitting her husband’ while another said ‘there were signs…’ and posted an image of Vance hugging Kirk.
Others were more supportive of Usha and Kori Talbot wrote: ‘Yes, many people (not just women) don’t wear their wedding rings all the time.
‘But she has to know she’ll be photographed and it will be commented/speculated on…so I definitely think it’s purposeful to make some sort of “statement”.’
Gina Milan wrote: ‘So many people leave their wedding rings at home when they travel. Plenty take them off at night and forget to put them back on because they’re juggling kids and real life. And somehow these clowns spin that into a ‘gotcha’? The reach is absolutely insane’.
When contacted by the Daily Mail a spokesperson for the Second Lady said Usha ‘is a mother of three young children who does a lot of dishes, gives lots of baths, and forgets her ring sometimes’.
Kirk and Vance’s embrace happened last month in Utah at a memorial event for Charlie Kirk, who was shot dead while hosting a campus event weeks earlier.
The vice president and second lady were photographed together on November 10 during a visit to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where Usha was also seen without her ring
Usha, who has been married to the VP since 2014, was last photographed with her wedding band on November 8 at the Marine Ball
The Vice President was seen awkwardly putting his hands around the waist of Kirk, a former reality TV contestant, and hugging her tightly while she apppeared to run her hands through his hair.
Lip reader Nicola Hickling told the Mirror US that Kirk could be seen saying: ‘I can’t do this, I don’t want to do it’.
When she took to the stage and hugged Vance, he told her: ‘I’m proud of you’.
In an interview late last month, the Vice President revealed another point of contention between him and his wife – their different faiths.
The Second lady is Hindu and did not grow up in a religious household, according to her husband.
Vance, on the other hand, is a devout Catholic who plans to raise his three children in a Christian household.
‘Now, most Sundays Usha will come with me to church,’ Vance told a MAGA audience at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Mississippi.
‘Yes, my wife did not grow up Christian. I think it’s fair to say that she grew up in a Hindu family but not a particularly religious family in either direction,’ he said.
Following an emotional speech, during which Erika evoked her late husband, she greeted the Vice President on-stage with a hug
The vice president converted to Catholicism in 2019, while Usha, the mother of his three children, grew up in a non-religious Hindu household
The Vice President then revealed he had told Usha that he would like her to ‘believe in the Christian Gospel,’ the first time Vance publicly revealed that he wanted Usha to convert to Christianity.
‘As I’ve told her, and I’ve said publicly, and I’ll say now in front of 10,000 of my closest friends,’ Vance continued. ‘Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing that I was moved in by church?
‘Yeah, I honestly do wish that because I believe in the Christian Gospel, and I hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way.’
He added: ‘But if she doesn’t, then God says everybody has free will, and so that doesn’t cause a problem for me.’
