How JD Vance's Ivy-League educated lawyer wife Usha, 39, stole the show at Donald Trump's inauguration

On stage at the Commander-in-Chief ball in Washington DC last night, all eyes were on the incoming President and his wife Melania as they slow danced to The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

However, as the President invited his Vice President JD Vance and his wife to join them, attention quickly turned to Usha Chilukuri Vance, who earlier in the day had become the first Indian-American and Hindu Second Lady in US history. 

Mrs Vance, 39, cut an elegant figure at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, wearing a glittering blue beaded lace illusion gown by Lebanese fashion house Reem Acra and her hair elegantly pinned back.

The dance marked a glamourous end to a day where the Ivy-league educated lawyer had been officially introduced on the global stage, with the new President himself even making time to mention the new Second Lady as he addressed crowds. 

Mr Trump told those gathered at the White House, and the millions watching worldwide online, of his admiration for his running mate's spouse, gushing: 'I watch JD over a period of time. I endorsed him in Ohio. He was a great senator and a very, very smart one.' 

The county's 47th president paused, then added: 'The only one smarter is his wife.' 

At Mr Trump's inauguration ceremony, Mrs Vance has also aced the style stakes. 

The lawyer wore a stylish but snug Oscar de la Renta blush-pink coat and taupe suede knee-high boots as she made her way to the ceremony with her husband and their three young children, Ewan Blaine, Vivek and Mirabel.

One fan of Mrs Vance's style wrote on Instagram account @celebstyletalk: 'Wow! That dress is a showstopper! I’ve been loving Usha’s style. I can’t wait to see what she wears next!'

Another added: 'All of her outfits that last few days have been beautiful & classic.'

With Melania Trump having been in the public eye - often apparently reluctantly - for decades, it seems the Republicans can't get enough of the latest Lady to make an entrance at the White House. 

As Usha Vance embarks upon a new career trajectory, FEMAIL looks at her story so far... 

SECOND LADY - BUT MOTHERHOOD COMES FIRST

Back on November 6th 2024, Usha Chilukuri Vance found herself standing on a presidential election victory stage and looked delighted to be there.

The moment marked a culmination, but also in many ways just the beginning, of a new career trajectory for the mom-of-three lawyer after being thrust into the national spotlight this summer when Donald Trump tapped her husband, J.D. Vance, to be his 2024 running mate.

But the Republican vice president-elect's glamorous spouse is no stranger to a high-profile public life, even if, standing alongside her husband as Trump declared victory, it appeared the gravity of her new role was just sinking in.

The Ivy League-educated litigator has worked at a top DC law firm and clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts in addition to being married to the Ohio senator and bestselling author. 

The pair first met while they were both students at Yale Law School in 2013. 

In his book Hillbilly Elegy, which was also made into a Ron Howard-directed film, Vance describes Usha as his 'Yale spirit guide.' 

They married one year out of law school in 2014 and had their first child, Ewan Blaine, in 2017. 

The power couple also have a second son, Vivek, and welcomed a daughter, Mirabel, in December 2021. Before moving to DC, they were raising their family in Cincinnati. 

When Usha Vance was asked before Trump made his pick known if she was prepared to have the eyes of the country on her, she responded frankly.

'I don't know if anyone is ever ready for that kind of scrutiny,' Vance told Fox & Friends in June. 

'I think we found the first campaign he embarked on to be a shock. It was so different from anything we had ever done before, but it was an adventure.'

She told Fox she's not raring to change anything in their lives right now but she believes in her husband and loves him, so they will see what happens. 

JD Vance has frequently made public mention of his young children, including apologising for missing key moments. 

When his middle son turned 4, he told reporters: 'I have a little guy named Vivek who was 3 years old yesterday but turned 4 today. And I’m sorry that I can’t be with you for your birthday dinner.'

'But I want you to know that Daddy loves you very much. And I’m going to read this into the record because maybe you can watch it at home.'

He then recited the 1990 Dr. Seuss classic 'Oh, The Places You’ll Go!'

When the couple welcomed daughter Mirabel, in December 2021, JD Vance praised his wife and called their third child 'an early Christmas present'.

A HINDU UPBRINGING - AND A BIBLE IN HAND IN WASHINGTON

Usha Chilukuri Vance was raised in the suburbs of San Diego by a mechanical engineer and biologist, both Indian immigrants. She has said she was raised in a religious Hindu family. 

Talking to the New York Times about his own return to Christianity and being baptized in 2019, J.D. Vance said: 'Usha was raised in a Hindu household, but not an especially religious household. 

'And I just felt kind of bad. Like, "Oh, you didn’t sign up to marry a weekly churchgoer. Are you OK with this?" And she was more than OK with it, and that was a big part of the confirmation that this was the right thing for me.'

In a sit-down with Fox News, she elaborated: “I did grow up in a religious household. My parents are Hindu, and that was one of the things that made them such good parents, that make them really very good people.'

When the election results rolled in, villagers from her parents' hometown min Vadluru, India watched intently and later celebrated her husband's win. 

'We just celebrated Usha’s husband’s victory. We burst [party] crackers and preceded this celebration with prayers for J.D. Vance’s victory yesterday at the local Sai Baba temple,' P. Srinivasa Raju, 53, a former village president, told media outlet PTI at the time.

FROM SAN DIEGO STUDENT TO HOT-SHOT LAWYER

From California she moved across the country for college and went to Yale University where she majored in history. After that, she continued her studies at the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar.

At Yale Law School, she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal and managing editor of the Yale Journal of Law & Technology. 

Vance was most recently an attorney at the San Francisco and Washington, DC law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson where she focused on complex civil litigation and appeals. With her husband's nomination she has left the firm.

When her husband jumped into the 2022 Ohio Senate race, Vance could be spotted throughout the state at campaign events. 

She also appeared in his first campaign ads where she talked about Vance's upbringing and having him by her side as a husband and parent to their children. 

She's described him as an incredible father and her best friend. 

THE COUPLE'S TIGER MOM - AND BEING NICKNAMED BILL AND HILLARY

Amy Chua, a law professor, and author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, a hugely popular parenting memoir had a role to play JD and Usha Vance's early romance, according to The Cut. 

Relating a recollection from legal writer David Lat, the outlet says the couple was at  a poker night in 2011 at the home of Chua and her husband, fellow Yale law professor Jed Rubenfeld. 

Describing her as a 'kind of den mother to certain student protégés, known on campus as “Chua pets,”' J.D. was among her favorites - but she was not a fan of Usha.

'Probably because she didn’t engage in her bulls**t,' a former friend told New York mag. 'You have to gossip and drink. J.D. loved that s**t.' 

Lat was at the poker game that night and, the mag reports, 'told his husband later that night that they’d reminded him of another famous Yale Law couple, Bill and Hillary Clinton.' 

'They had a kind of energy to them,' Lat told the outlet. 'They seemed very confident and successful. One thing that struck me as Hillary-esque was that Usha seemed to have more polish than J.D.'

In Hillbilly Elegy, Vance wrote that Chua told him he should focus on his relationship rather than chasing clerkships - and the rest is history.

Two years later, J.D. and Usha moved to San Francisco where she went to work for Munger Tolles & Olsen.