"If it helps one person, it's worth it," Beverly Aikins said about her public speaking events. Aikins has spoken to groups in a few states about her substance use and recovery journey.
Usha Vance hugged Ewan, now 8 years old, as Vance spoke to media in Cincinnati on Election Day. Ewan is the oldest of Vance's three children.
Beverly Vance Aikins, mother of Vice President JD Vance, speaks at Heritage Church in Washington Court House, Ohio for a talk titled "A story of Addiction, Hope, Recovery and Redemption" on Sept. 8, 2025.

WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE, OH ‒ Her son, Vice President JD Vance, put her struggle with substance use in the national spotlight.

Now, Beverly Aikins is telling her story in her own words.

In the months since Vance became vice president, Aikins has spoken to a few groups around the country about her substance use and recovery journey ‒ years after Vance published his memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy," which later inspired a movie.

On Monday evening, Sept. 8, Aikins spoke at a church in Fayette County, Ohio, for a free event called "A Story of Addiction, Hope, Recovery and Redemption."

"I call it 'recovery out loud,' because I want people to know that this disease is out there," she told The Enquirer. "I just feel like that's my mission right now. I've been put on the map by him (Vance), and I'm taking advantage of it."

Aikins works as a nurse at Seacrest Recovery Center, a drug addiction treatment center in suburban Cincinnati. She still lives in Middletown, Vance's hometown, in a condo that her son bought for her.

Her event in Ohio on Sept. 8 was hosted by a Republican women's group, but some attendees separated Aikins' message about sobriety from her son's politics.

"She brought me to tears," said Fayette County resident Mercedes Williams. "I grew up the same way. I'm in recovery as well. She really touched me."

Williams, 30, said she isn't political, but hearing Aikins' story made her like Vance more.

Samantha Leeth, 26, who works at a substance use recovery facility in the county where Aikins spoke, doesn't support the vice president. She brought some of her patients so they could hear Aikins' message.

"Regardless of the politician part, it helps them," Leeth said.

After 'Hillbilly Elegy,' Aikins shares her story

"Hillbilly Elegy," Vance's 2016 memoir, surged in popularity after he was announced as Donald Trump's running mate, and has sold well over 1.6 million copies. In the book, Vance said his Appalachian grandparents, especially his grandmother, "Mamaw," offered him stability while his mother dealt with the chaos of substance use and multiple marriages.

At the church, Aikins remembered her father as a "severe alcoholic" who was abusive toward her mother.

"I have horrible childhood memories of his alcoholism and I vowed to never be like him," she said. "And I ended up being 10 times worse."

Aikins became a nurse when Vance and his sister were young, and had a passion for it. But she became addicted to Vicodin after taking some for a headache, and lost her job and nursing license for stealing drugs from the hospital where she worked. After she was fired, Aikins started using heroin.

"At the end of my addiction, I was living out of my car," she said. "My kids weren't speaking to me. My parents had both passed away. And I was just so angry."

Aikins began attending sobriety meetings in Middletown and heard about a sober living community in Covington, Kentucky. She got the necessary $385 for a spot from her sister and a local pastor and moved in, which she said saved her life.

Her daughter, Lindsay Lewis, reconnected with her after she had been living at the sober facility for over a year. Vance, meanwhile, stayed away.

"My daughter was a little more forgiving than my son," Aikins said.

Vance eventually surprised Aikins at one of her sobriety meetings. After the meeting, he told her about "Hillbilly Elegy."

"He said, 'Mom, I wrote a book. You're not very favorable in the book,'" Aikins recalled. "The book is going to be published next week, but if you want me to cancel it, I will."

Aikins asked her son: "Will it help you heal? Will it help you forgive me?"

"He said, 'I think it will,' " Aikins said. She told him to publish it.

"There's a line in the book ‒ 'My mother, a woman I wished I'd never met,' " Aikins recalled. "It was heartbreaking."

After the book came out, their relationship was still strained. Aikins said she was "crushed" Vance didn't invite her to a party in New York to celebrate "Hillbilly Elegy" making The New York Times' best sellers list.

Then came the Netflix movie. Aikins got a call from director Ron Howard offering her $12,000 to be portrayed by Amy Adams in the film. She said she hung up on him.

"I said, 'You want to tell the whole world I'm a drug addict whore for $12,000?!' Click," she said.

Aikins got a lawyer and negotiated a higher pay for the film. With the money, she was able to pay to regain her nursing license, a process that would require self-funded schooling and drug tests.

Aikins says Vance's firstborn son brought them closer together

When Vance invited his mom up to Columbus in 2017, it was a turning point. His wife Usha was about to give birth to their first child, Ewan.

"I think when he saw that little baby boy, he realized that he loved that baby boy unconditionally and he would do anything for him. And I think it hit him," Aikins said tearfully. "I'm a drug addict, and drug addiction is a disease. And even though I've made a lot of mistakes, I would do anything for him. I loved him unconditionally."

"From that minute on, our relationship changed," she said. "I started getting calls. I started getting texts. And I know it's because of that little boy."

Vance's mom on his politics: 'JD and I don't agree on everything'

Aikins celebrated her 10th year of sobriety in January in the White House. But her family's new role in the political spotlight, and public discourse ‒ and criticism ‒ about her son have sometimes tested the sense of peace she's fought to cultivate.

About a week after Vance was announced as Trump's running mate, Aikins posted on Facebook that she was leaving social media until after the election because of her neighbors' "vitriol and hate" toward her son.

Recently, she blocked a Facebook friend who posted a meme mocking Vance.

"That's how I handle it," she told The Enquirer. "People are going to be like that, and I get it. It's ok. We live in a great country where people are allowed to have differences in opinion. But I don't see him as a politician. I see him as my child."

Aikins is still navigating what it means to be the vice president's mom, especially as she tries to spread a message of sobriety that's not tied to her son's politics. Last week, she made a new, public Facebook page dedicated to her speaking engagements. One of her upcoming events includes a gathering at a Tennessee church, where $20 tickets will benefit a local food pantry.

"JD and I don't agree on everything," she said about her son's politics. "We just don't. I've got a few different opinions than he does and we agree to disagree. I'm not political. I just want to spread the word of recovery."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: 'My mission.' Years after 'Hillbilly Elegy,' JD Vance's mom is telling her own story

Reporting by Victoria Moorwood, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer

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