Erika Kirk recalls horrific moment she was told her husband Charlie Kirk was shot
Much like how the death of Charlie Kirk rang out across the globe, the widowed Erika Kirk has vowed to continue her late husband's work, saying that her "cries will echo around the world like a battle cry."
On September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk was hit with a single gunshot while discussing gun violence during his "The American Comeback Tour" at Utah Valley University. Despite initial confusion and wrongful arrests alongside conspiracy theories, a massive FBI manhunt led to the arrest of 22-year-old Tyler Robinson.
Erika Kirk has faced backlash for sharing intimate images of her husband lying in a coffin, while the controversial Candace Owens has also thrown shade at Kirk's widow. She's been in the news even more recently, going viral amid accusations of an 'inappropriate' hug with Vice President JD Vance, refusing to accept an apology from Jimmy Kimmel, and criticizing the handling of Robinson's trial.
After already revealing the heartbreaking moment she had to tell her children that Kirk had died, Erika has opened up about her husband's death.
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In her first official interview since the shooting, Erika Kirk spoke to Fox News' Jesse Watters about that fateful day.
Attending her mother's doctor appointment, Kirk said she'd been watching the event on her phone when she got a call from Turning Point USA chief of staff, Michael McCoy. After being told about the incident, Kirk explained: "I’ll never forget. I’m just being like, ‘Charlie’s been shot. He’s been shot. Get the kids. Get security. Get the kids. Get the kids. He’s been shot'."
In the immediate aftermath, Kirk continued: "I sprinted out of her treatment center, just collapsed in the middle of the parking lot, called our security."
Referring to it as an 'unbelievable nightmare', she told Watters about the night before and how she'd told Charlie to sleep in their daughter's room because he had to be up early to head to the event: "I said, ‘I want you to have a good night’s sleep. Go ahead and sleep in her room, and I’ll turn the air down so it’s nice and cozy in there...I just want you to get a good night’s sleep so you can be amazing tomorrow'."
She remembers him coming into their bedroom because that's where his wedding ring and necklace were kept, adding: "He came in and he grabbed that and then he left. I didn’t get to give him a kiss."
An emotional Erika Kirk says she eventually got to give him a kiss as he lay mortally wounded in the hospital. Despite doctors and a police officer telling her to wait until he was taken to the morgue, a defiant Kirk demanded to see her husband: "I said, ‘With all due respect, sir, I want to see what they did to my husband, and I want to give him a kiss, because I didn’t get to give him a kiss this morning'."
Watters then asked whether she thinks Robinson should receive the death penalty, with Kirk saying: “I do not want this man’s blood on my ledger when I stand before the Lord...I want the government to decide. That’s biblical, too.
“Justice will ultimately be served.”
She concluded by reiterating she will never watch the footage of her husband's shooting: "I never saw the video. I never will see it. I never want to see it.
"There’s certain things you see in your life that you can never unsee. There’s certain things you see in your life that mark your soul forever. I don’t want my husband’s public assassination to be something I ever see."