This article includes mentions of drug addiction, domestic abuse, and violence.
When taking an in-depth look at Vice President-Elect J.D.
Vance’s background and upbringing, there’s no denying the man has defied many odds.
Now, the two will rule the halls of the White House together.
Vance’s upbringing couldn’t be more different from Trump’s.
His mother had a drug addiction
After J.D.
Vance’s father walked out on his family, things took a turn for the worse.
His mother, who worked as a nurse, turned to drugs to escape reality.
It started with a simple headache, and Beverly Aikins decided to take some Vicodin for the pain.
“My brain loved it,” she toldThe New York Times.
His mother abused and neglected him
In his book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” J.D.
Vance doesn’t mince words when discussinghis chaotic childhood with his sister Lindsay Ratliff.
He detailed one of the book’s most harrowing experiences with NPR’s “Fresh Air.”
“She sped up the car on the highway.
Went over you know, it seemed at the time like she was driving over 100 mph.
Terrified, he fled to the backseat.
Beverly Aikins wasn’t having it and brought the car to a halt.
“[I thought she] was going to start hitting me.
And so I ran.
I ran out of the car.
We were in a pretty rural part of the state.
And I actually ran through a field to a person’s house,” Vance recalled.
While speaking to Megyn Kelly forNBC, Vance revisited that awful day.
But then he became aware of something far worse he was all alone.
“The relief of having survived another day was gone.
Vance moved from one unstable household to another
After J.D.
His grandmother and grandfather, Bonnie and James Vance, had a violent relationship as well.
Young Vance was so used to violence, he didn’t question that she might actually do it.
A lot of kids don’t listen to that demand when their parents make it.
“After the adoption, he became kind of a phantom for the next six years.
He had a new wife with two small children, and I’d been replaced.”
He has several siblings with whom he has no contact
J.D.
Vance might be pro-family, but the vice president-elect actually has no contact with some of his siblings.
“Lindsay was (and remains) the person I was proudest to know,” he wrote.
Vance has owned up to some of his vices.
What upset him most was his mother’s heartbreak when her relationships eventually ended.
Fast forward to the present, and Vance admits that anger is still a challenge.
“I didn’t get here by making excuses for failure!”
he recalled yelling at her when she tried to console him.
Vance’s former Yale roommate believes that anger caused the politician to swear allegiance to Donald Trump.
