Vice President J.D. Vance held a ceremony at the White House on Friday to celebrate his mother’s ten years of sobriety, the White House announced on Monday.
Vance’s mother, Beverley Aikins, celebrated her milestone in the Roosevelt Room alongside about two dozen family members. The vice president first proposed holding this celebration during his speech at the 2024 Republican National Convention, where he accepted the vice presidential nomination.
“I’m proud to say that tonight my mom is here, 10 years clean and sober. I love you, Mom. And, you know, Mom, I was thinking. It’ll be 10 years officially in January of 2025, and if President Trump’s okay with it, let’s have the celebration in the White House,” Vance said during the speech in July.
During the ceremony, Aikins received a ten-year medallion to commemorate her sobriety. Vance said he is “grateful” that the celebration could be held in honor of his mother in a Monday statement on X. “This year marks my mom’s 10th year of sobriety, and I’m grateful that we were able to celebrate in the White House with our family. Mom, I am so proud of you,” the vice president said.
Aikins currently works as a nurse at a recovery center near Cincinnati, Ohio, where she “devotes her life to her family and to helping Americans who are struggling with addiction,” according to a Monday press release from Vance’s office. The vice president’s mother advised those battling addiction “to reach out, to try to get help, and that recovery is hard, but it’s so worth it.”
His mother’s struggles with addiction were chronicled in Vance’s 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” Her addiction began when she took painkillers to ease headaches, which later led to her usage of the opioid Percocet and heroin. Vance was placed into the car of his maternal grandparents, James and Bonnie Vance, after his mother’s arrest when he was a child. Actress Amy Adams portrayed Aikins in the film adaptation of the memoir on Netflix.
Photographs from the ceremony show Vance and his mother smiling at the White House briefing room podium, hugging in the Roosevelt Room and standing outside of the White House with members of their extended family. His wife, second lady Usha Vance, and their three children were present.
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