--- description: Find out why Vice President Mike Pence won't eat alone in a room with another woman other than his wife, Karen Pence. title: Vice President Pence Won’t Eat Alone With Any Woman But His Wife Karen image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8184795baf44e07/6988c05bf887dc073ce999ef/mike-pence-karen-pence.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [motto](/tag/motto/) ## motto Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Vice President Pence Won’t Eat Alone With Any Woman But His Wife Karen  by [Samantha Cooney](/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 29, 2017 3:23 PM CUT  U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, and his wife Karen Pence are introduced at the the AIPAC 2017 Convention on March 26, 2017, in Washington, D.C. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, right, and his wife Karen Pence are introduced at the the AIPAC 2017 Convention on March 26, 2017, in Washington, D.C.Noam Galai—Getty Images  by [Samantha Cooney](/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 29, 2017 3:23 PM CUT Vice President Mike Pence won’t eat in a room alone with another woman besides his wife, Karen Pence. That’s one of the tidbits revealed in a recent [Washington _Post_ profile](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/karen-pence-is-the-vice-presidents-prayer-warrior-gut-check-and-shield/2017/03/28/3d7a26ce-0a01-11e7-8884-96e6a6713f4b%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.a5b83f90719a "undefined") of the Second Lady, who shares her strong evangelical Christian faith with her husband. The profile characterizes the former [teacher](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/us/politics/who-is-karen-pence.html?%5Fr=0 "undefined") as the family’s “prayer warrior” and reports that she provided advice for her husband — and on some occasions, President Donald Trump — on key challenges throughout the 2016 campaign. The two, who married in 1985, became evangelical Christians after marrying in a Roman Catholic church, according to the _Post._ As part of his faith, Pence won’t eat alone with other women or attend events that serve alcohol without his wife. Within the faith, the practice of not being alone with a woman has been [called](https://books.google.com/books?id=YfxQg6PIBTQC&pg=PA163&lpg=PA163&dq=billy+graham+rule&source=bl&ots=j9DgPaLeLd&sig=gYDV5%5FQ2Y831mE3N7Bkv70Soa%5F0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiWucSR-PvSAhVB6CYKHeeGClU4ChDoAQhFMAc#v=onepage&q=billy%20graham%20rule&f=false "undefined") “[the Billy Graham rule](https://www.christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/the-modesto-manifesto/ "undefined"),” after the famed evangelist [preacher](http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1633197,00.html?iid=sr-link3 "undefined") who encouraged it to avoid even the appearance of infidelity. > [](https://twitter.com/lkoturner/status/846896266210557954) “You can’t get a dime between them,” Ken Blackwell, a senior fellow at the Family Research Council and a senior domestic policy adviser on the Trump transition team, told the _Post_. “It is not him seeking her approval, but his doing a sort of gut check with what they have learned together and come up through together in terms of their shared Christianity.” Read the [full profile](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/karen-pence-is-the-vice-presidents-prayer-warrior-gut-check-and-shield/2017/03/28/3d7a26ce-0a01-11e7-8884-96e6a6713f4b%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.a5b83f90719a "undefined") on the Washington _Post_. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4716439/mike-pence-karen-pence-eat-alone/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4716439/mike-pence-karen-pence-eat-alone/"},"headline":"Vice President Pence Won’t Eat Alone With Any Woman But His Wife Karen","datePublished":"2017-03-29T15:23:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:05:17.709Z","description":"He also won’t go to events where alcohol is served without her","url":"https://time.com/4716439/mike-pence-karen-pence-eat-alone/","keywords":["motto","Marriage","relationships","faith","Mike Pence"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8184795baf44e07/6988c05bf887dc073ce999ef/mike-pence-karen-pence.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Cooney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8184795baf44e07/6988c05bf887dc073ce999ef/mike-pence-karen-pence.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Major Political Figures Address AIPAC 2017 Convention","caption":"Major Political Figures Address AIPAC 2017 Convention","creditText":"Noam Galai—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4716439/mike-pence-karen-pence-eat-alone/","name":"Vice President Pence Won’t Eat Alone With Any Woman But His Wife Karen"}}]}] ```