Erika Kirk recounts seeing Charlie lying in the hospital

PROGRAMMING ALERT: Watch the full interview TONIGHT at 8 p.m. ET on "Jesse Watters Primetime."

Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk sat down with "Jesse Watters Primetime" for her first TV interview since the assassination of her husband, Charlie Kirk. In the emotional interview, Kirk recalled what it was like seeing her husband lying in the hospital after he was fatally shot in September.

"He had this smirk on his face. That smirk. That smirk to me is that look of 'you thought you could stop what I've built. You thought that you could end this vision, this movement, this revival, you thought you could do that by murdering me. You got my body, you didn't get my soul,'" Kirk told Fox News' Jesse Watters nearly two months after her husband was assassinated.

In the interview, Kirk addressed 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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Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk is seated in the recording room for "The Charlie Kirk Show" during an exclusive interview with Fox News' Jesse Watters that will air Wednesday, Nov. 6 (Jesse Watters Primetime)

"You told your children that Charlie was going on a work trip with Jesus. Are they still asking 'where's daddy'?" Watters asked Kirk.

"Yes, my daughter continues to ask, but it's really sweet, because I keep explaining to her a few things," Kirk told Watters. "I said if ever you want to talk to daddy, you just look up to the sky and start talking to him. He can hear you. It's always good. And I told her, I said, you know, 'Daddy, daddy is in heaven.' She goes, 'Do you think I could go sometime?' I said, 'Baby, we will all go one day. We will all go one day.'"

Since her husband's assassination, Kirk said she has refused 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 get anything done."

President Donald Trump posthumously awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 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 on Oct. 14, 2025 in Washington, D.C.  (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 TPUSA's iconic founder. The Kirks' love story, rooted in prayer and purpose, shaped not only their marriage but the movement he built, a legacy Erika now carries forward 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 she was the one.

Erika posted a selfie of her and Charlie on Sept. 5, 2023, marking five years since the two met. She wrote, "5 years ago today, we sat inside Bill's Burgers in NYC deep in conversation and banter over theology, philosophy, and politics and at the end, you paused, looked at me and said, ‘I'm going to date you.’" 

Both Erika and Charlie spoke openly about the importance of dating with intention, something they said they did when they met.

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

Charlie proposed to Erika in December 2020. She captioned photos of the engagement on Instagram, "When God writes your love story, you get to 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’ve been praying for, before I ever met you. [T]o the man that I honor, respect, and deeply cherish. [T]o the man that leads in ways that remind me of the leaders before our time and [whose] confidence in God’s word reminds me of Daniel... [T]o the man that I am immeasurably blessed to be able to call my husband. My CJK. I love you, [Charlie]."

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Fox News viewers can catch Kirk's full emotional tell-all interview with Watters on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on "Jesse Watters Primetime."

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