JD Vance and his wife Usha may be working overtime to keep up appearances amid those swirling rocky marriage rumors, but their icy body language whenever they try to seem affectionate often makes it hard to buy the act. Case in point: their awkward PDA at Pope Leo XIV’s inaugural mass, which had us hiding in the pews from secondhand embarrassment. The vice prez and the second lady were caught sharing a kiss during the public mass while sitting in the front row at St. Peter’s square in the Vatican. “‘ok now we need to kiss to make it seem like im an actual human,'” an X user dryly joked. Another captured the veep with his body turned toward his wife, planting a kiss on her cheek as she smiled softly. There’s being affectionate — then there’s just forcing it.
This is so sweet. US VP JD Vance seen kissing his wife SLOTUS Usha at Holy Mass for Pope Leo XIV in St. Peter’s square in The Vatican. pic.twitter.com/W56usjVhw7
— Liana ❤️ 🇺🇸 (@lianan) May 18, 2025
In 2022, the couple also shared a cozy moment after they casted their ballots in the midterm elections while JD was running for a Senate seat in Ohio (and later won). Usha, clad in a black long-sleeved top and jeans, was photographed with her eyes closed as she leaned in and kissed her husband on the cheek. JD, meanwhile, had his arms around his wife while breaking into a wide grin. While the moment seemed genuine, a love coach explained why the PDA may have been staged. “Genuine kisses often involve softer body language as one partner melts their body into the other. When a kiss is forced, the body almost always gives signals of the underlying tension,” Nicole Moore, a celebrity love coach and body language expert, exclusively told Nicki Swift. Still, there’s a lot to unpack.
JD and Usha seemingly lack affection
Looking closely at JD and Usha Vance’s interaction in the above photo, there are a lot of nuances worth noting. First things first, while the kiss itself feels a bit staged, you can see a trace of warmth in Usha’s facial expression. “[She] does appear to have a slight smile as she’s kissing JD, which could indicate that even if the kiss was more forced for a photo op, she does have some genuine positive feelings towards JD,” Nicole Moore explained in her interview with us. “It’s possible that Usha wasn’t feeling particularly amorous towards JD in that moment, but she wasn’t feeling upset at him either.”
As for JD, his body language told a different story. He doesn’t really respond to Usha’s kiss, keeping his body still and facing forward, without leaning closer to Usha or softening his posture. Even his arm seemed tense, as though he was just going through the motions. All in all, “It appears as if this particular kiss may have been for the cameras and their relationship is in a neutral zone, where there’s not a ton of positive feelings but not a ton of negative feelings either,” said Moore. “This kiss gives friendly married but roommates vibes rather than passionate lovers vibes.”
The seeming lack of affection between the two only reinforces the notion that JD and Usha’s marriage is in trouble. And aside from their kiss, there are a lot of cringey moments of PDA between the VPOTUS and Usha that have been caught on camera in recent years. You be the judge.
