Vice President JD Vance’s warm embrace of Erika Kirk last month, followed by his wife appearing publicly without her wedding ring, has fueled speculation about the state of the vice president’s marriage – speculation, Vance told NBC News recently, that he insists he actually enjoys.

Rumors that Vance’s marriage with his wife Usha might be in jeopardy were sparked by the vice president’s “more-than-casual hug” with Kirk at a Turning Point USA event, with Kirk placing her “hand in Vance’s hair and the veep placing his hand on her hip.” This was followed by Vance’s public statement that he hoped his wife – a Hindu – would convert to Christinanity, which itself was followed by Usha appearing publicly without her wedding ring.

However, when asked about the speculation by NBC News on Thursday, Vance insisted that despite the grim subject matter, he actually enjoyed the rumors and had “fun” with them.

“It’s funny,” Vance told NBC News. “I actually don’t think that it’s tough.”

Regarding Usha’s public appearance without her wedding ring, Vance said his wife told him after leaving the White House that she had forgotten it.

“She was like, ‘if I don’t go back and get them, there’s going to be some ridiculous psycho who talks about it on social media,’” Vance said. “And I was like, ‘let them; It’s not even worth the trip to run back upstairs.’ So we actually have a little bit of fun with it. And we thought that whole viral social media cycle was kind of funny.”

Vance’s comments to NBC News mark the first response from the vice president on his wife appearing in public without her wedding ring. However, a spokesperson for Usha did issue a

statement

to People magazine, claiming the incident was due to the second lady being a “mother of three young children who does a lot of dishes, gives lots of baths [and] forgets her ring sometimes.”