United States’ Second Lady Usha Vance was spotted without her wedding ring during an official engagement, weeks after Vice President JD Vance publicly revealed the religious divide in their marriage.
Usha, 39, accompanied First Lady Melania Trump on Wednesday to Camp Lejeune military base in Richlands, North Carolina. Photos show her disembarking from a plane with her left hand in full view – and the wedding band nowhere to be seen.
Additional images from Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Air Station New River confirm the ring remained off throughout the visit.
The Vice President, meanwhile, was photographed wearing his wedding band during a speaking event in Washington on Thursday.
The sighting comes after weeks of online speculation about the state of the Vance marriage, which began in October following the Vice President’s embrace of Erika Kirk during a memorial for her late husband, conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Religious Divide and Public Speculation
The speculation about a possible rift between the Second Couple was fueled by Vance’s admission that he has pleaded with his wife to convert from Hinduism. Vance is a devout Roman Catholic.
The Camp Lejeune visit was the first joint engagement for Usha and Melania, designed to cheer up troops ahead of Thanksgiving. They also visited Lejeune High School and met with students before joining children at a nearby elementary school for arts and crafts projects.
Photos of Usha’s earlier appearance on November 10 – a joint visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center with her husband – also show her without the band. As the images circulated on X, commenters suggested Usha may be signaling her feelings toward her husband.
One user joked she was “Quiet Quitting her husband,” while another posted the image of Vance hugging Kirk with the caption “there were signs…”
Others defended Usha, noting many people do not wear their rings all the time. “She has to know she’ll be photographed and it will be commented on…so I definitely think it’s purposeful to make some sort of statement,” wrote Kori Talbot.
Gina Milan countered: “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 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.”
Vance’s Remarks on Faith and Family
The embrace with Erika Kirk occurred last month in Utah at a memorial event for Charlie Kirk, who was shot dead while hosting a campus event.
The Vice President was seen hugging Kirk tightly while she appeared 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.”
In an interview late last month, Vance revealed another point of contention between him and his wife – their different faiths. Usha is Hindu and did not grow up in a religious household, while Vance is a devout Catholic who plans to raise their three children in a Christian household.
“Now, most Sundays Usha will come with me to church,” Vance told a Turning Point USA audience at the University of Mississippi.
He added: “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. But if she doesn’t, then God says everybody has free will, and so that doesn’t cause a problem for me.”
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