Charlie Kirk’s assassination profoundly impacted JD Vance and his family, and caused Second Lady Usha Vance to change her mind about having another child, the vice president has revealed in his new memoir.
Vance, a close friend of the late conservative activist, revealed that his wife had the change of heart after consoling a devastated Erika Kirk shortly after her husband was fatally shot last year. Between sobs, Erika Kirk told the second lady that she regretted only having two children with Charlie.
“For years I had asked Usha to have another baby, and for years she had told me she was done—especially now that public service had elevated us into the national spotlight,” Vance wrote in “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” an excerpt of which was published Friday in the Wall Street Journal.
“But something changed for Usha, and not long after we buried my friend, she became pregnant with our fourth child, a boy,” he wrote.
“One life was stolen from us, but another was given,” the vice president added, referencing his Catholic faith.
The second family has three children, Ewan, 9, Vivek, 6, and Mirabel, 4. The Vances’ fourth child is due in late July.
In the excerpt, Vance wrote that Charlie Kirk helped him become a better parent as he and his wife adjusted to life in the spotlight. The vice president wrote that he would regularly talk to the podcaster about “the stresses national politics placed on our family.”
Kirk, who was assassinated on a Utah college campus in September 2025, was a well-known conservative Christian figure on social media thanks to his viral videos debating people with different ideologies.
When asked how to help his oldest son adjust to 24/7 cameras and security, Kirk had told Vance to accept that becoming famous was a worthy sacrifice for their political movement. The vice president wrote that his son slowly adjusted to his new life.
Vance also said that Kirk became one of his best friends and closest confidants in politics.
Shortly after Kirk was assassinated, the Vances flew to Utah to be with his family, consoling Erika and escorting his casket home.
Since then, the vice president has taken on a role as a guest speaker for Turning Point USA, the organization Charlie Kirk co-founded to promote conservative Christian ideology in young people. Vance has spoken at several Turning Point events and championed Erika Kirk, who now runs the organization.
The vice president’s new memoir centers on his conversion to Catholicism in 2019 while also serving as a sequel to his first bestselling book, “Hillbilly Elegy.”
The vice president has been vocal about how his Catholic beliefs intertwine with his political values, telling the American Conservative in 2019 that his views on public policy “are pretty aligned with Catholic social teaching.”
He’s championed families to have more children and infamously criticized “childless cat ladies.”
