Usha Vance, the wife of the Vice President, was seen donning her wedding ring during the White House’s traditional turkey pardoning ceremony on Tuesday. This sighting comes after she faced intense online criticism for not wearing the ring during a visit to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, last Wednesday alongside First Lady Melania Trump. Addressing the speculation, a representative for Usha explained that as a busy mother of three young children, she often forgets to wear her ring due to her daily chores like dishwashing and bathing the kids.

Once again silencing skeptics, Usha wore her wedding band during the turkey pardoning event, where she was accompanied by her husband, JD Vance, and their daughter, Mirabel. The couple, who met during their time at Yale Law School, tied the knot in 2014 and have three children: Ewan, 8, Vivek, 5, and Mirabel, 3. The image of the family comes after weeks of unfounded rumors regarding the state of their marriage, fueled initially by a friendly embrace the Vice President shared with Erika Kirk during a memorial for her late husband, conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Further speculation was stirred by the Vice President’s candid comments about encouraging Usha, a Hindu, to convert to his faith, Roman Catholicism.

Photos taken on November 10, during a joint visit by Usha and her husband to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, also showed her without the ring. As these images circulated on social media platform X, users speculated about their significance, with one joking that Usha was “Quiet Quitting” her husband and another suggesting the absence of the ring was a deliberate statement. Meanwhile, supporters like Kori Talbot pointed out that many people, not just women, occasionally forego wearing their rings, though she admitted that Usha’s position means such choices are likely to draw attention and be interpreted as intentional.

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’. 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 was seen awkwardly putting his hands around the waist of Kirk, a former reality TV contestant, and hugging her tightly while she ran her hands through his hair.

The clinch quickly became fodder for critics who claimed the intimacy was inappropriate, despite many arguing it was clearly a moment of shared grief between two people who adored Charlie. Erika addressed the hug for the first time in an interview with Megyn Kelly during an on-stage event in Arizona on Friday. ‘So for those of you who know me, I’m very-,’ Erika said as Kelly finished her statement: ‘You’re an intense hugger!’ ‘My love language is touch, if you will … So I will give you a play by play. They just played the emotional video. I’m walking over, he’s walking over. I’m starting to cry. He says, “I’m so proud of you.” And I say, “God bless you,” and I touch the back of his head. ‘Anyone whom I have hugged that I have touched the back of your head when I hug you, I always say, God bless you.’

Kelly responded with a quick joke, ‘They were acting like you touched the back of his [expletive]!’ ‘I feel like I wouldn’t get as much hate if I did that!’ Erika said with a laugh. 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. 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.’