Erika Kirk says she saw Charlie in the hospital after being shot

PROGRAMMING ALERT: Watch the full interview TONIGHT at 8 p.m. ET on “Jesse Watters on prime time“.

Erika Kirk, CEO of Turning Point USA, spoke to “Jesse Watters Primetime” for her first television interview since the assassination of her husband, Charlie Kirk. In this emotional interview, Kirk recalled what it was like to see her husband lying in the hospital after being fatally shot in September.

“He had this smirk on his face. That smirk. To me, that smirk is that look of ‘you thought you could stop what I built. You thought you could end this vision, this movement, this revival, you thought you could do it by murdering me. You have my body, you don’t have my soul,'” Kirk told Fox News’ Jesse Watters nearly two months after her husband’s murder.

In the interview, Kirk discussed life after her husband’s death, including the Jimmy Kimmel controversy, the defense’s request to keep cameras out of the courtroom, and her daughter’s questions about Charlie.

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“You told your children that Charlie was going on a work trip with Jesus. Do they always ask “where’s daddy”? » Watters asked Kirk.

“Yeah, my daughter keeps asking, but it’s really nice, because I keep explaining things to her,” Kirk told Watters. “I said if you ever want to talk to Dad, you just look up to the sky and start talking to him. He can hear you. That’s always good. And I told him, I said, you know, ‘Dad, Dad’s in heaven.’ She said, “Do you think I could go there someday?” I said, ‘Baby, we’ll all go there one day. We’ll all go there one day.'”

Since her husband’s murder, Kirk said she refuses to live in fear. She told Watters: “I’m not afraid, Charlie wasn’t afraid either. We never lived in fear. If we did, we wouldn’t do anything.”

President Donald Trump posthumously awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk as he presents the medal to his wife Erika Kirk during a ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House October 14, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

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On Thursday, Kirk will receive the first-ever Charlie Kirk Legacy Award at the seventh annual Fox Nation Patriot Awards at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts in Brookville, New York.

Kirk has lived much of her adult life in the public eye – first as Miss Arizona USA, later as a ministry leader and entrepreneur, and most recently as the grieving widow of the iconic TPUSA founder. The Kirks’ love story, rooted in prayer and purpose, shaped not only their marriage but also the movement it built, a legacy Erika now carries on after Charlie’s death.

Charlie Kirk and his wife, Erika Lane Frantzve, and their two children at Christmas in December 2024. (Charlie Kirk via Facebook)

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Erika and Charlie met in 2018 and then had a “very long dinner.” Charlie said that he knew “almost immediately” that it was her.

Erika posted a selfie of her and Charlie on September 5, 2023, marking the fifth anniversary of their meeting. She wrote: “5 years ago today we were sitting at Bill’s Burgers in New York, immersed in conversation and jokes about theology, philosophy and politics and in the end, you paused, looked at me and said, ‘I’m going to go out with you.'”

Erika and Charlie spoke openly about the importance of go out with intentionsomething they said they did when they met.

With supporters gathered along the route, Erika Kirk salutes as a motorcade brings the body of her husband, Charlie Kirk, to Hansen Mortuary Chapel in Phoenix on September 11, 2025. (Diannie Chavez/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

Charlie proposed to Erika in December 2020. She captioned engagement photos on Instagram, “When God writes your love story, you marry your best friend.” The two married less than a year later, in May 2021.

In a post with their wedding photos, Erika wrote: “To the man I prayed for before I met you. [T]o the man I deeply honor, respect and cherish. [T]o the man who leads in a way that reminds me of leaders from before our time and [whose] trusting the word of God reminds me of Daniel… [T]o the man I am infinitely lucky to be able to call my husband. My CJK. I love you, [Charlie]”.

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Fox News viewers can see Kirk’s full emotional interview with Watters Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on “Jesse Watters Primetime.”

Fox News’ Michael Ruiz and Taylor Penley contributed to this report.