Actress and Sports Illustrated model Brooklyn Decker credited Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick JD Vance with giving her a clearer perspective on her own background and upbringing, DailyMail.com can reveal.
The 37-year-old blonde beauty, who is married to tennis star Andy Roddick, hails from Middletown, Ohio – the same small steel town where Vance grew up in poverty with a drug-addict mother.
The town – an hour north of Cincinnati – was later immortalized in Vance’s 2016 bestselling memoir and subsequent film, Hillbilly Elegy, which chronicled his mother’s drug addiction and turbulent family history.
Years later, Decker herself would recognize that Vance’s book had had a ‘lasting impression’ on her, during an interview with Society Texas magazine in their January 2020 issue.
‘It takes place where I was born and where my mom and a huge chunk of my family are from. It helped me to understand them on a deeper level,’ the model said.
Brooklyn Decker, who hails from Middletown, Ohio – the same small steel town where JD Vance grew up in poverty with a drug-addict mother once named his book as one that made a ‘lasting impression’ on her
Vance gained national attention in 2016 when he published his bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy, chronicling his impoverished and troubled upbringing
Decker was born 20 miles from Middletown in Kettering, Ohio, but her family moved there when she was young. They later relocated to Matthews, North Carolina, during her childhood.
She began a modeling career after being discovered in a Charlotte shopping mall and rose to fame after being featured on the cover of the 2010 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.
She then graduated from modeling into acting, landing notable roles in films and TV shows such as the 2011 romcom Just Go with It with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston.
The following year she made What to Expect When You’re Expecting, and went on to star on the Netflix comedy series Grace and Frankie alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, from 2015 to 2022.
Hillbilly Elegy, Vance’s raw and candid account of his upbringing, was made into a 2020 film by Oscar-winning director Ron Howard, starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close.
Vance, who was born in Middletown in 1984, described himself as ‘the abandoned son of a man I hardly knew and a woman I wish I didn’t’.
For much of his childhood, Vance lived primarily with his grandmother ‘Mamaw’ iwhile his mother battled drug addiction.
After graduating from Middletown High School, he enlisted in the US Marine Corps before a successful career in business and now politics where as a first-term Senator he was selected to be Donald Trump’s running mate earlier this week.
Vance told the Republican National Convention: ‘I grew up in Middletown, Ohio, a small town where people spoke their minds, built with their hands and loved their God, their family, their community and their country with their whole hearts.
The Sports Illustrated model, who is married to tennis star Andy Roddick has previously spoken of her challenging upbringing in various interviews
During the RNC, Vance paid tribute to his recovering mother and his ‘hillbilly’ roots
The Ohio senator, whose real name is James Donald Bowman, revealed he and his wife and fellow law school classmate Usha Chilukuri both changed their last names legally to Vance when they got married
‘But it was also a place that had been cast aside and forgotten by America’s ruling class in Washington.’
While Decker has not gone into detail on any extended family struggles that would lead her to so strongly identify with Vance’s memoir, she has previously spoken of her challenging upbringing in various interviews.
Speaking to The Mail on Sunday in 2012 she said: ‘My parents had us very young. We lived in a modest house. We built forts, we hiked, we went camping and they wanted us to be independent.
‘It’s how children grew up in the 1940s and 50s: outside all the time, playing in the dirt, riding your bike around. I played sports; I played the violin and the guitar.
‘We weren’t allowed to watch TV. We didn’t have passports and we didn’t travel – it was too expensive. With my first pay check I sent my parents to Jamaica, so they actually got passports!’
She has also revealed the punishing work ethic she learned from her parents.
She said in an interview with Refinery29 in 2017: ‘I grew up with a mom who worked grueling hours, literally saving lives as an ICU nurse, she instilled in me at a very early age that I needed to work. And when I had a baby, [while filming] I didn’t have a choice, I went back to work in three weeks.’
Decker has also spoken of issues relating to her parents’ radically differing communications styles and how her husband Andy Roddick has had to adjust to this.
‘I’m way TMI with my parents,’ she once told Bustle.
‘My poor father regularly walks out of the room because no father should be hearing this information. Whereas my mom’s super open, my mom’s kind of a hippie, so I will definitely be very TMI with my children.’
By way of example, she cited once telling her mother details of how she had lost her virginity.
‘She was like, ‘This is probably more than I need to know. I know that it happens in your life and you’re going to lose your virginity, but probably don’t need to know where you had [lost it],’ Decker recalled.
Commenting on Roddick, she said: ‘He just shakes his head because my family is bizarrely open, by now he’s used to it.’
Decker began a modeling career after being discovered in a Charlotte shopping mall and rose to fame after being featured on the cover of the 2010 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue
She then graduated from modeling into acting, landing notable roles in films and TV shows, such as 2011 romcom Just Go with It, with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston
In a 2020 interview, Decker revealed Vance’s book helped her understand her parents (pictured right) and family ‘on a deeper level’
Despite her closeness to her parents, Decker has also admitted she is bringing up her two children with Roddick differently to how she was raised.
She told Medium: ‘Really for me what we’re trying to do with our daughter that maybe was different from the way that I was raised, and I’m very close with my parents and loved my upbringing, but we’re really trying to give her power over her body and her choices.
‘Little ways. For example one of her grandparents comes in and wants a hug. When I was younger everyone would say, ‘Oh, just give your grandma a hug; it’s no big deal.’
‘If my daughter says, ‘I don’t feel like doing that,’ we say, ‘Then you don’t have to.’ One of the things I wish I could tell my younger self would be that you’re allowed to say no.’
Decker refuses to publicly have her children photographed, saying: ‘In my opinion, as far as putting his face out there, that’s his choice, and that’s hard, because as mom you want to share every video, and every photo, and every snuggle, but ultimately your digital footprint is a permanent record these days and not something that can be erased. I think the image of him that’s out there should be his own.’
While Decker’s own upbringing was less fraught than Vance’s, she has spoken recently of the economic pressures of modern-day acting, supporting the recent Hollywood Writers’ strike.
Speaking about the lack of residuals she received from her hit Grace and Frankie last year, Decker said: ‘I had an amazing experience working, but it was definitely not what it would have been at a network.
‘These streamers are making a ton on the back of creatives and it’s time that those wages are just paid out and allocated fairly. No one’s asking for more than they deserve. Everyone’s just asking for fairness and fair wages for their work.’
Vance with Trump at the Fiserv Forum on Tuesday night before they listened to former rivals Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis address the convention
The crowd chanted ‘J.D.’s mom’ when Vance paid tribute to his mother Bev and described his pride at how she had been sober for the past 10 years
She has also expressed reservations at the precarious frequency of acting work: ‘Personally for me, knowing I’m not sure when my next job will happen, I would love my kids to have more stability in their career.’
Although Decker credits Vance for helping her understand her family dynamic, she is unlikely to be voting for him in November’s US Presidential Election.
Commenting on election day 2020 in a reference to Donald Trump’s first presidential term, she wrote on Twitter, ‘I’m hopeful Biden/Harris will be victorious but this still feels like a loss.’
On the day of the inauguration of Joe Biden as president of the United States, Decker wrote on Twitter: ‘A beautiful, powerful day. A day of hope. An administration focused on healing and civility. I am deeply moved and so proud my babies got to see this. #JoeBiden #KamalaHarris.’
Omaha-born Roddick has also been critical of Donald Trump.
After Trump described U.S. military officials who favored leaving old equipment in Afghanistan as ‘some of the dumbest people I’ve ever met in my life’, Roddick sounded off in a since-deleted post on X.
‘I’m old enough to remember way back when this wouldn’t have gone over very well [with] most of [the] country. I also remember when federal indictments, charity fraud, business fraud, and a conviction for sexual assault would’ve been disqualifying. What are we doing? And why?’
Decker is no stranger to controversy herself.
In 2015 she was forced to distance herself from an Oklahoma racist fraternity scandal after she was discovered to have cordially tweeted back at a student who was expelled from university for racist chanting.
A year previously, Decker apologized for writing an article for Harpers Bazaar that originally headlined, ‘Brooklyn Decker’s Girly Guide to the Super Bowl.’
