Vice President JD Vance says the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk helped change his wife Usha Vance’s feelings about having another child, according to an excerpt from his new memoir, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, published by The Wall Street Journal on Friday, June 5.
In the book, JD Vance writes that after his wife comforted Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, following Charlie’s killing in September 2025, she was moved by a conversation about family and motherhood. Vance says Erika told Usha, through tears, that she regretted having only two children with her late husband. Charlie Kirk died at age 31 and is survived by Erika and their two children.
JD Vance, 41, says he had long asked Usha, 40, to have a fourth child, but she had repeatedly said no, especially after the family entered the national spotlight through his political rise. According to the memoir excerpt, he says something changed after Charlie Kirk’s death, and not long after the couple buried his friend, Usha became pregnant with their fourth child, a boy.
The Vances announced in January, four months after Charlie Kirk’s death, that they were expecting baby No. 4. In the memoir passage, JD Vance describes the pregnancy as a blessing and says he is grateful that another child will soon join the family.
Usha Vance previously addressed questions about expanding the family in a March interview with NBC News. She said she had never fully ruled out a fourth child, explaining that after growing up in a family of two children, she later thought three might be the right number. She said that after their third child, she felt complete at first, but over time became increasingly open to the possibility of another baby.
She added that she knew she would be happy either way, whether the family stayed at three children or grew to four. Usha Vance also said at the time that she was feeling well during the pregnancy.
The pregnancy is notable because Usha Vance is expected to become the first second lady to give birth since Ellen Colfax in 1870. Her due date was not stated in the excerpt, but the family’s public announcement in January confirmed the pregnancy.
Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith is scheduled for release on Tuesday, June 16.
