Usha Vance was spotted at an official engagement without her wedding ring, weeks after husband JD Vance publicly revealed the religious divide in their marriage.
The Second Lady was ringless during her visit to Camp Lejeune military base in Richlands, North Carolina on Wednesday with First Lady Melania Trump.
Photos show Usha, 39, getting off 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 image comes after weeks of nasty trolls whispering about the state of the Vance marriage, which began in October with the Vice President’s tight hug he gave to Erika Kirk during a memorial for her husband, the right wing activist Charlie Kirk.
The speculation about a possible rift between the Second Couple was fueled by the VP admitting that he has pleaded with his wife to convert from Hinduism: he is a Roman Catholic.
The visit was the first joint engagement for Usha and Melania and was designed to cheer up the troops ahead of Thanksgiving.
They also went to Lejeune High School and met with students before going to a nearby elementary school for arts and crafts projects with other children.
What’s more, photos of Usha’s previous appearance on November 10 – a joint visit to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center with her husband – show she was not wearing her band at that event either.
As the photos began circulating on X, commenters suggested that Usha may be not-so-subtly indicating her feelings towards her husband, 41.
One user joked that Usha was ‘Quiet Quitting her husband’ while another said ‘there were signs…’ and posted an image of Vance hugging Kirk.
Others were more supportive of Usha and Kori Talbot wrote: ‘Yes, many people (not just women) don’t wear their wedding rings all the time.
‘But she has to know she’ll be photographed and it will be commented/speculated on…so I definitely think it’s purposeful to make some sort of “statement”.’
Gina Milan wrote: ‘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 by the Daily Mail 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’.
Kirk and Vance’s embrace happened last month in Utah at a memorial event for Charlie Kirk, who was shot dead while hosting a campus event weeks earlier.
The Vice President was seen awkwardly putting his hands around the waist of Kirk, a former reality TV contestant, and hugging her tightly while she apppeared 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’.
When she took to the stage and hugged Vance, he told her: ‘I’m proud of you’.
In an interview late last month, the Vice President revealed another point of contention between him and his wife – their different faiths.
The Second lady is Hindu and did not grow up in a religious household, according to her husband.
Vance, on the other hand, is a devout Catholic who plans to raise his three children in a Christian household.
‘Now, most Sundays Usha will come with me to church,’ Vance told a MAGA audience at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Mississippi.
‘Yes, my wife did not grow up Christian. I think it’s fair to say that she grew up in a Hindu family but not a particularly religious family in either direction,’ he said.
The Vice President then revealed he had told Usha that he would like her to ‘believe in the Christian Gospel,’ the first time Vance publicly revealed that he wanted Usha to convert to Christianity.
‘As I’ve told her, and I’ve said publicly, and I’ll say now in front of 10,000 of my closest friends,’ Vance continued. ‘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.’
He added: ‘But if she doesn’t, then God says everybody has free will, and so that doesn’t cause a problem for me.’
