Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
US Vice President JD Vance has revealed that his wife Usha Vance’s views on having a fourth child changed following the assassination of American podcaster Charlie Kirk and a conversation with his widow, Erika Kirk, later that year. The account, detailed in Vance’s upcoming book Communion, differs from his earlier explanation, when he said he and Usha decided to have a fourth child because he was very “persuasive.”
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JD Vance and Erika Kirk shared the stage and a warm hug on October 29, 2025. The lengthy embrace soon went viral online. However, as Vance revealed in his book, it was after that interaction that Erika convinced Usha to consider having a fourth child. The Vances announced the pregnancy on January 20, saying they were expecting the baby later this year.
Usha, however, has said she had “never closed the door on” having a fourth baby. She said that although her family at one stage “did feel very complete” with three children, she later became “more and more excited about that possibility” of expanding it.
Writing in Communion, JD Vance said he had asked Usha for another baby for years, while she had told him she was done, “especially now that public service had elevated us into the national spotlight.”
According to him, “something changed” after Charlie Kirk’s death. In a passage from the book reported by RadarOnline, he wrote: “As my wife held Charlie Kirk’s widow on the first day of her terrible sorrow, Erika told Usha between sobs that she regretted having only two kids with Charlie.”
He added that Usha’s outlook shifted not long after his friend’s death.
“But something changed for Usha, and not long after we buried my friend, she became pregnant with our fourth child, a boy,” he wrote.
Erika Kirk has separately said she “prayed to God” that she was pregnant when her husband died. Speaking to Megyn Kelly, she said she and Charlie had planned to have four children together and said she now tells young couples, especially young women, not to put it off.
This differs from JD Vance’s earlier public remarks about Usha’s pregnancy. Recalling the period when he decided to run for vice president, he said earlier this year: “I said, Honey, I really want to have a fourth kid.”
He said Usha gave him two options: “Well, you can become vice president, or you can have a fourth baby.” He then said he “got both” because he was “persuasive.”
Usha Vance has since described her decision in her own words. In an interview with NBC’s Kate Snow, she said: “People have asked me if we’re going to have a fourth baby, and I’ve never closed the door on that. I grew up in a family of two, and I thought that was a great number. And then I had two kids, and I thought — I didn’t feel quite done, right? So I really wanted to have a third child.”
She also said that while the family once felt complete with three children, she later became “more and more excited about that possibility.”
“And so if there was a chance, I should take it,” she said, adding that she knew she would be happy if they had three children, and she knew she would be happy if they had four.
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
