EXCLUSIVE Usha Vance says she has no plans to abandon Hinduism, explains how Vance children will choose their faith

Daily Mail​

4 days ago

Second lady Usha Vance spoke candidly in a new interview about how she and Vice President J.D. Vance are raising their three children in a split faith home.
Vance sat down with Meghan McCain for an episode of her 2Way show Citizen McCain, which marked the second lady's first extensive on-air interview since the Vances moved into the Naval Observatory in January.
The two millennial women talked about raising young kids, her romance with J.D. and what Usha does for fun and how she views her role as second lady, now that the Yale-trained lawyer is in this unexpected position.
McCain asked Vance how she's incorporating her Hindu faith with her husband's Catholicism, as the couple raises their three kids, Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel.
'Well, at the time when I met J.D., he wasn't a Catholic, he converted later, and when he converted, we had a lot of conversations about that,' Vance said.
She noted how when someone converts to Catholicism they make commitments to the church - including raising their children in the Catholic faith - adding that the vice president's conversion 'was a really helpful thing to happen, because we were obligated to have those conversations.'
'And we had to have a lot of real conversations about, how do you do that when I'm not Catholic and I'm not intending to convert or anything like that,' Vance added.
She said what the couple decided to do was send their kids to Catholic school.
'And we have given them each the choice,' she said.
So far eldest son Ewan has decided to be baptized Catholic and middle son Vivek will decide next.
She said that the Vances also 'make going to church a family experience.'
'The kids know that I'm not Catholic and they have plenty of access to Hindu tradition - from books that we give them to things that we show them to the visit recently to India and some of the religious elements of that visit,' Vance said.
The 39-year-old second lady said her kids get to learn about Hindu through spending time with her parents and her grandmother.
'My grandmother is a particularly devout Hindu,' she said.
'She, you know, she prays every day, she does the temple regularly, she'll do her own pujas, and so they access it that way,' Vance continued.
Vance said they don't always celebrate the Hindu holidays at home, but the kids will call her family members.
The second lady even teased an event the Vances could be hosting at their Naval Observatory home next year.
'We're actually hoping to have a Holi party and we're looking forward to that next year,' she revealed.
Vice presidents and their families have long used the Massachusetts Avenue compound for events.
When former President Joe Biden was serving as VP, he memorably had pool parties - and squirted reporters with water guns - at the Naval Observatory.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris hosted a party marking the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop in her backyard in 2023.
Holi is a festive celebration marking the start of spring, where attendees typically throw colored powder at each other.
Vance is the first member of a first or second family who practices Hindu, though Harris attended Hindu temples as a child, but attended a Baptist church as an adult.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard also practices Hindu.