Erika Kirk, widow of slain Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, opened up about her grief in an emotional interview with Fox News host Jesse Watters — revealing she has never watched footage of her husband’s assassination and never will.
“I never saw the video, I never will see it,” she said in a special segment titled “Erika Kirk: In Her Own Words.” “There are 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. I don't want my kids to ever see that.”
Erika described her last night with Charlie, recalling that she and their daughter slept in the couple’s bed while he took their daughter’s room to rest before his speaking event the next day. “That night, he was so excited,” she remembered. “He said, ‘I can’t wait — it’s going to be the best.’”
The next morning, she watched him grab his wedding ring and necklace before leaving. “I didn’t even get to give him a kiss goodbye,” she said. Hours later, she got the devastating call. “Charlie’s been shot,” a friend told her. “Get the kids. Get security.” Erika collapsed in a parking lot upon hearing the news.
Charlie Kirk, 30, was killed instantly when he was struck in the neck by a single round from a bolt-action rifle during a Utah Valley University event. “The way the bullet hit him, he died instantaneously,” Erika said. “He literally blinked and was with the Lord.”
She revealed that she had once urged him to wear a bulletproof vest, but he refused. “He’d always say, ‘If they’re going to get me, they’re gonna get me.’ He wasn’t afraid,” she recalled.
When police advised her not to see her husband’s body due to its condition, Erika refused. “I said, ‘With all due respect, sir, I want to see what they did to my husband. I want to give him a kiss because I didn’t get to give him a kiss this morning,’” she said.
Seeing him, she recalled, brought her peace. “He was still warm, and his eyes were slightly open. He had this smirk on his face,” she said. “That smirk was like, ‘You thought you could stop what I built… You got my body, you didn’t get my soul.’”
Erika will be honored with the first-ever Charlie Kirk Legacy Award at the Fox Nation Patriot Awards in New York on Thursday, recognizing her husband’s impact and her strength in carrying on his work.