Usha Vance says she has no plans to abandon Hinduism
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, 39, 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.
'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 are 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 Vance family visited India, including the Taj Mahal, in April, while the vice president also brought Usha and the kids along with him to a trip to Rome when he met with the late Pope Francis, who had gifts for the Vance children.
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.
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.
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