The Awkward Start To JD Vance And Wife Usha's College Romance

Love at first sight can be awkward, but JD Vance managed to make it work for him. Vance first met his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, in 2013 when they were both students at Yale Law School. There, his professor, Amy Chua, told NBC News about their first meeting, saying, "He describes it as a lightning bolt. And I saw that. I mean, I've never seen anybody so starstruck. It was love at first sight." But while Vance may have been seeing stars, Chua pointed out one of the many weird things about the couple, saying that the pairing of the two was "extremely unlikely," calling Vance and Usha "almost opposites in personality."

While the two may have met at opposite ends of the spectrum, they discovered their compatibility while working on an assigned brief together. To get it done, Usha would set up the times that they would meet and was impressed by Vance's punctuality, recalling in the same interview, "I liked how that, you know, he was very diligent. He would show up for these like 9 a.m. appointments that I set for us." Vance repaid the compliment, saying, "The thing that I remember most about Usha is just how completely forward and comfortable with herself she was." As for whether the now very conservative Vance ever had politics come between them while in college, a friend of theirs told USA Today that while Vance was "identifiably conservative," Usha did not often express strong opinions on her political viewpoints at the time.

What began as an awkward partnership for an assignment has grown into a journey to the White House despite rampant rumors about a divorce. While Usha reportedly did not have strong political opinions back in college, USA Today reported that the two now remain in ideological lockstep as Vance is set to become Donald Trump's vice president. In fact, Jai Chabria, a friend of the family and political consultant, told USA Today that Usha advises Vance on every speech that he makes, saying, "When he goes out and makes a great speech, she advises him and, and gives him her opinion, and it's taken seriously." As for whether Vance and Usha ever have any fundamental disagreements on politics, Chabria said, "There is no daylight between the two of them on the politics of the day." 

Meanwhile, Vance and Usha have blossomed into a full-fledged family. They married in 2014 after both graduating and have since welcomed two sons, Ewan and Vivek, and a daughter, Mirabel, into their lives. And as their political responsibilities have increased, so has some of their cringey PDA while on the campaign trail. And while the media circus that surrounds Trump can be exhausting, Usha said that she and Vance had some serious conversations before he threw his hat into the political arena for his Senate campaign in 2021, saying, "We do have three children and giving them a stable, normal, happy life and upbringing is something that is the most important thing to us." This is good because there are rumors that Vance might already be getting iced out of Trump's inner circle.