There was no ring on the ring finger of second lady Usha Vance when she visited Camp Lejeune, a military base, alongside first lady Melania Trump earlier this week.

The duo was photographed on Nov. 19 walking together in North Carolina. And the second lady – the wife of Vice President JD Vance – was seen without her wedding ring, talking to the troops and to the first lady. Despite the online discourse, Vance has been pictured with and without her wedding band on numerous occasions.

By the time Friday, Nov. 21, rolled around, the split rumors surfaced on social media. Speculation about the state of the second couple's marriage intensified. But Vance, 39, is the first second lady of her kind, a reserved and hesitant public figure, more focused on motherhood than statesmanship.

A spokeswoman for the second lady told USA TODAY in a statement Nov. 21 that Vance is "a mother of three young children, who does a lot of dishes, gives lots of baths, and forgets her ring sometimes." The Vances have three children: Ewan, 8, Vivek, 5, and Mirabel, 3.

Once viewed simply through the lens of their vows, Vance is among a growing bipartisan group of modern women in America who are bucking the constructs and constraints of political marriages.

Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, reimagined her role as "first partner," ditching the "lady" label due to gendered stereotypes. Michelle Obama has been outspoken during President Donald Trump's second term about the burden of being first lady. Rama Duwaji, married to New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, is an accomplished illustrator who never speaks to the press, offering statements through her artwork on Instagram.

Like Melania Trump, she rarely sits for interviews. Besides an hourlong appearance on Meghan McCain's podcast, sitting as the former "View" cohost announced her third pregnancy, Vance has skipped press stops since her husband took office.

"Interesting. Usha Vance minus wedding ring yesterday at Camp Lejeune," Democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko said on X, incorrectly stating the day of Vance's visit. "Is JD sleeping on the couch?" the Democratic Party's official X account said.

Usha Vance skips wearing wedding ring. Why do we care?

Born and raised in San Diego, Usha Chilukuri was a child of Hindu Indian immigrants and both of her parents are educators.

The Vances met as students at Yale Law School, where she excelled. "She seemed some sort of genetic anomaly, a combination of every positive quality a human being should have: bright, hardworking, tall, and beautiful," her husband wrote in his 2016 memoir "Hillbilly Elegy," calling the second lady his "spirit guide."

Before President Trump picked her husband as his running mate, Vance was a lawyer at Munger, Tolles & Olson, a firm that specializes in litigation and corporate law. After Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Vance moved her family from their home in Cincinnati's East Walnut Hills neighborhood to the United States Naval Observatory, the traditional residence of the vice president's family.

During her time as second lady, Vance has still been the subject of rumors about the health of her marriage. Kennedy heir Jack Schlossberg, now running for Congress, garnered backlash after joking that he was expecting a baby with Vance.

The internet ignited in furor after Charlie Kirk's widow, Erika, hugged her husband. Vice President Vance made headlines last month for saying he hoped his wife would convert to Catholicism.

"Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing that I was moved in by church? Yeah, I honestly, I do wish that, because I believe in the Christian gospel, and I hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way," JD Vance said, speaking at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Mississippi on Oct. 29.

"But if she doesn't, then God says, 'Everybody has free will,' and so that doesn't cause a problem for me. That's something you work out with your friends, with your family, with the person that you love," he added.

Then, of course, the missing ring.

There are countless reasons why somebody may choose not to wear their wedding band. They took it off to be cleaned. It felt too tight. They left it on the bathroom counter before going to bed that night. In the movies, the wife slips off her wedding ring after an argument or fight. In real life, many people just forget.

Vance is busy doing the dishes and giving the kids baths. In America, it could also just be that the second lady's ring and narrative belong to her first.

Contributing: Amaris Encinas, Aysha Bagchi

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Usha Vance, missing wedding ring, belongs first to herself

Reporting by Jay Stahl, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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