How US Vice President JD Vance met his wife Usha Bala Chilkuri Vance: Their love story

US Vice President JD Vance began his official visit to India on Monday, arriving with his wife, Usha Vance, and their three children — Ewan, Vivek, and Mirabel — who stepped off Air Force Two wearing beautiful traditional Indian attire.

On a visit to the Akshardham Temple, Vance praised India’s craftsmanship and hospitality: “Thank you all so much for your hospitality and kindness in welcoming me and my family to this beautiful place. It is a great credit to India that you built a beautiful temple with precision and care. Our kids, in particular, loved it. God Bless,” he said. The Vice President has visited Janpath and Akshardham so far and is rumoured to be travelling next to Jaipur’s Amber Fort.

For Usha Vance, this trip carries personal significance. Though born in California, she traces her roots to Andhra Pradesh, India. Her journey and her love story with JD Vance have been discussed a lot.

JD and Usha Vance met as students at Yale Law School. They became friends before they started dating, and according to Usha in a 2017 NBC News interview, their bond deepened while working on a legal brief together. "I've never seen anybody so starstruck," said their professor, Amy Chua, who described JD Vance’s reaction to Usha as “love at first sight.”

The couple married in 2014, holding both Christian and Hindu ceremonies. JD Vance later converted to Catholicism in 2019, according to The American Conservative. When asked by Fox News in June 2024 about their interfaith marriage, Usha Vance said, “There are a lot of things that we just agree on, I think, especially when it comes to family life, how to raise our kids. So I think the answer really is that we just talk a lot.”

JD Vance’s bestselling 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, chronicles not only his working-class upbringing but also his relationship with Usha. He credited Professor Chua for encouraging him to prioritize his relationship over a prestigious federal clerkship. “Amy's advice stopped me from making a life-altering decision... Most important, it allowed me to accept my place at this unfamiliar institution — it was okay to chart my own path and okay to put a girl above some shortsighted ambition,” he wrote.

Usha, a Yale-educated litigator, built an impressive career that included clerkships with Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John G. Roberts. According to a now-removed bio from Munger, Tolles & Olson, she also served as executive development editor of the Yale Law Journal and managing editor of the Yale Journal of Law and Technology. She has done extensive pro bono work, including with the Supreme Court Advocacy Clinic and the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project.

Their family grew alongside their careers. Their first child, Ewan, was born just a month before Usha began her clerkship with Chief Justice Roberts, according to NBC News. The couple also has a son, Vivek, and a daughter, Mirabel.

As JD Vance’s political profile rose, so did Usha’s visibility. During his 2022 Senate campaign, she appeared in a political ad, calling him “an incredible father” and “my best friend.”

In her Republican National Convention speech, Usha reflected on their early relationship: “Although he's a meat and potatoes kind of guy, he adapted to my vegetarian diet and learned to cook food from my mother, Indian food. Before I knew it, he'd become an integral part of my family, a person I could not imagine living without.”

After the Trump-Vance ticket won the 2024 election, JD Vance thanked Usha in a post on X: “THANK YOU! To my beautiful wife for making it possible to do this... I will never stop fighting for ALL of you.”

At the 2025 inauguration, Usha Vance held the Bible as her husband was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh — her former boss — as Vice President of the United States.

The couple has since taken several official trips together, including visits to France and Germany in February.