Everything We Know About JD Vance's Parents & His Complicated Relationship With Them

Donald Trump's defiantly left-field VP pick, JD Vance, had a tumultuous childhood to say the very least. His mother, Beverly Vance, was just 19 years old when she gave birth to Lindsay Vance, her first child with Donald Bowman. The couple married in 1983 and welcomed their second child, JD, the following year. In the Ohio Senator's bestselling memoir "Hillbilly Elegy," he admitted that his dad stopped being a strong presence in their lives a few years before his folks divorced. At the time, JD was only six, and his parents' split understandably hit him hard.

"I always felt loved when I spent time with him, which was why I found it so shocking that he 'didn't want me anymore,' as Mom and Mamaw told me," the 2024 Republican vice presidential nominee penned in his memoir, alongside noting, "He had a new wife, with two small children, and I'd been replaced," per Today. Young JD's heart broke even more when Dowman permitted Beverly's husband, Bob Hamel, whom she married two years after the divorce, to adopt him. 

To make matters even worse, Beverly forced her son to drop his biological father's name from his middle name in what the young boy believed was an attempt to "erase any memory of his existence." Ultimately, JD and Bowman bettered their relationship once he was a teenager. At the time, JD also learned that his biological father had fought tooth and nail to retain custody and only consented to his adoption because he realized the divorce had taken a serious toll on him.  

In "Hillbilly Elegy," JD Vance detailed how Beverly Vance was a nurse who ended up getting addicted to the painkillers that were readily available to her. The family's home life was made considerably more unstable by the fact that Beverly got married multiple times following her split from Donald Bowman. "Of all the things I hated about my childhood, nothing compared to the revolving door of father figures," JD revealed, per People. In his younger years, the controversial politician frequently overheard his mother arguing with whoever she was dating at the time. Although JD didn't want to get caught in the middle of things, he still found himself inexplicably drawn to the fight, and the youngster would often eavesdrop from a safe distance. Sometimes, JD would even hear his mother crying uncontrollably in her bed after a relationship didn't work out. 

While speaking to Megyn Kelly for NBC News, the 2024 Republican VP nominee got emotional as he reflected back on a fateful car ride with his mom when JD was 12. "I said something or some conversation topic really ignited her temper," he recalled. "Then she just sped up, and she kept on saying, 'I'm just going to crash this car and kill us both.'" The author managed to exit the car and find help. Soon, the police were informed and Beverly was arrested. JD confessed to Kelly that he was glad to have got away from the ordeal with his life intact. Afterwards, JD's grandparents were entrusted with his care. 

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JD Vance went on to have a chaotic childhood with his older sister, Lindsay Vance. But although it took some time, the Ohio senator's relationship with their estranged mom, Beverly Vance, was eventually mended. His mother was there to cheer JD on when he took the stage at the 2024 Republican National Convention, and she was holding back the tears as he proudly confirmed that she had been sober for nearly a decade. However, there was a time when the mother and son weren't even speaking to each other. 

In Beverly's 2021 interview with The Movie Times, she shared that her son had chatted with other family members while he wrote his bestselling memoir, but JD was unable to sit down with her because he apparently still harbored loads of ill will from his childhood. However, the politician did give her a heads-up before the book hit shelves, and she gave her blessing. Still, Beverly disclosed that her first read of "Hillbilly Elegy" was devastating. 

As she explained, "I never knew his pain until I read the book and it caused me to grow up a lot and it's been a healing process for me and for him and for my daughter Lindsay." Elsewhere in the interview, Beverly also acknowledged that it put into perspective just how absent she was as a mom. Despite all their highs and lows, the memoir only helped bond the Vances more. And JD ultimately found his chosen family with his wife, Usha Vance.