In a quiet conversation inside the US vice president's residence, US VP JD Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, offered a rare glimpse into their personal faith and family life. Speaking with Sunday Morning national correspondent Robert Costa, the couple openly discussed religion, marriage, and raising a young family in Washington.
Life at the VP Residence
The Vances are raising three children aged four, six, and nine at the VP residence, with a fourth child expected soon. Vance joked about the unusual setting, saying even the president teases him about it. "The President actually will bust my chops sometimes, 'cause he'll say, 'You have a nicer house than I do,'" he said.
Vance's Faith Journey
The interview focused on Vance's recent book Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, which details his 2019 conversion to Catholicism and how it has shaped his politics, marriage, and personal life. Usha Vance spoke about how her husband's faith journey has influenced their relationship, including a past comment she made about therapy and church. Usha once told her husband, "Therapy didn't work for you; church does." She elaborated during the interview: "And it's not that therapy doesn't work for other people, but JD just doesn't have the right kind of trust in that process. He just didn't feel at home in it, really exploring some of the feelings that he had and trying to figure out how he wanted to be the person that he wanted to be for the rest of his life."
In his book, Vance describes his search for stability after a turbulent childhood. He said he often felt unsettled growing up in a shifting home environment. "I grew up in some ways a very nontraditional household, you know? A revolving door of people coming in, people coming out, raised by my grandparents at some points, raised by my parents at some points, my mom, my dad. So, there was a certain movement and chaos to my youth. And I do think that I was searching for something that, again, felt a little bit more rooted and felt a little bit more stable."
Misunderstandings About Faith Differences
Usha was raised in a Hindu family in California. She said there are often misunderstandings about their relationship and faith differences. The second lady cleared any misconceptions: "I think people have really cottoned onto the idea at one point that JD was interested in my conversion. And I think that was misunderstood for the fundamental reason that he is Catholic; part of his faith is wanting to spread his faith. But it's not like he's proselytizing to me every day."
Usha as a Sounding Board
She also described how she often serves as a sounding board for her husband's political remarks. Vance said, "Well, she just texts me or calls me, or if we're sitting in the house together, she'll just tell me. Usha's very blunt. It's one of the things I've always loved about Usha from the very beginning."
Family Decisions
The interview also touched on how personal conversations have influenced their family decisions. Usha said a discussion following the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk helped shape their thinking about having a fourth child. "I think it really heightened JD's sense that he'd been talking about this for a while, this sense that there was this possibility of having another kid whom he could love as much as the three that we had," she said. She added: "And it really did crystallize for [him], that sense that if you could have that other child, then you would have nothing to regret. And if we couldn't have that other child, then we were very happy with the children that we had."
