7 Erika Kirk Rumors That Just Won't Go Away

After right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk's brutal murder on September 10, 2025, the world's attention turned to his wife, Erika Kirk. From questions about how Erika met Charlie to curiosity about what her final moments with Charlie were like, the former pageant star and businesswoman was shoved into the spotlight — and she stayed awhile. Naturally, conspiracy theories around Charlie's death abounded, and with Erika stepping into his shoes, she became the new subject of swirling rumors.

Erika has lived an eventful life, and after her husband's death, she became the new CEO of his organization, Turning Point USA. But this isn't her first rodeo. Erika hosted the "Midweek Rise Up" podcast before Charlie's untimely death and built two businesses: Proclaim, a Christian clothing brand, and a ministry project, BIBLEin365. It's therefore unsurprising that Erika's comments about career-driven women had people looking at her sideways during the 2025 New York Times DealBook Summit, with many calling her a hypocrite for criticizing women who want to build a career first and have a family later.

Erika also faced some tough questions from the event's founder and New York Times columnist Andrew Sorkin. He asked her about her views on the Civil Rights Act, which her husband openly opposed. Erika danced around the answer. "He was trying to go after ideas and trying to see a different view," she responded, per Vanity Fair. Cue suspicions that she might break with some of her husband's views now that he's no longer alive. The rumor mill has been churning, and Erika has been the subject of some salacious and downright damaging rumors, from whispers that she was pregnant to gossip that she was about to steal Vice President JD Vance from right under his wife's nose, Erika's name has consistently been on everyone's lips.

One of the rumors that has plagued Erika Kirk since her husband Charlie's death is that she was pregnant with the couple's third child at the time her husband was shot. The gossip was, in part, fanned by a countdown post Erika had shared to her social media platforms days before Charlie's death. The caption read, "...walk the countdown with us. 9.16.2025." As it turns out, this post had nothing to do with a pregnancy announcement. Internet grifters, however, took advantage of scuttlebutt that Erika might be pregnant, and a series of fake Facebook posts started making the rounds, claiming that Erika had announced her third pregnancy. The links provided sent people to a website claiming to have the scoop, but in reality, it featured a fake story on a page filled with advertisements.

Erika finally put the rumors to rest in November 2025 when she made an appearance on "The Megyn Kelly Show." She told Kelly that she and Charlie had planned on having four kids (they had two before his death). She also disclosed that she'd hoped she was pregnant when her husband died. "I was praying to God that I was pregnant when he got murdered," Erika said. "We were really excited to just expand our family." She took a moment to encourage women to have children young and focus on their careers later because there's no telling what life might throw at you.

Aside from the debunked pregnancy rumors, gossip also made the rounds that Erika Kirk had launched a Christian dating app in the aftermath of her husband's death. It all started out as a satirical post from a Reddit account, which posted a screenshot that appeared to have been taken straight from Erika's X feed. It read. "After losing Charlie last week, I wasn't sure how to move forward. But God put a new mission in my heart: helping young Christians find one another. That's why I'm proud to introduce Faith & Fellowship, our new dating app. Yes, I'm on it too!" For those not aware of the magic AI can work, the post seemed all too real, and it spread like wildfire across the internet.

Erika never debunked the rumor about the dating app herself. Snopes did that for her after the screenshot made it from Reddit to platforms like Instagram and Facebook. One account reposted it and later amended the caption to indicate that the post was satirical, penning, "This appears to be satire, but it's still f***ing funny. The memes are writing themselves now." Some in the comment section were aghast by people's willingness to poke fun at a woman who had just lost her husband, with one person clapping back, "Why lie about a suffering widow? Is there no bottom to the slander?"

Given President Donald Trump's long history of suing media outlets, it wasn't too much of a stretch to believe that one of his number one fans, Erika Kirk, would do the same. Not long after Charlie Kirk's death, rumors ran rampant that his widow was suing ABC and one of its popular talk shows, "The View." The claim originated from a Facebook page titled America's Last Line Of Defense, which shared a post reading, "Erika Kirk files $40 million defamation lawsuit against ABC and 'The View.'" The post also included a false quote from Erika that read, "The things they said about my husband were shameful and disgusting." Funnily enough, the post went viral shortly before late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was temporarily suspended from the network after some of his comments about Charlie rubbed people the wrong way, including the White House.

If anyone had bothered to read the Facebook page's bio, the rumor likely wouldn't have spread like wildfire. In the description, the page states that it doesn't post anything factual. "The flagship of the ALLOD network of trollery and propaganda for cash. Nothing on this page is real," it reads. So, no, Erika never filed a lawsuit against the network. That didn't keep those who take everything they see on the internet at face value from spreading the false rumor across social media, with multiple posts presenting the rumor as fact on X.

In October 2025, Vice President JD Vance and Erika Kirk's cozy embrace jumpstarted a messy MAGA rumor. Erika, in a white T-shirt and leather pants, told her audience at a Mississippi Turning Point USA event that JD resembled her late husband, Charlie Kirk, in many ways. "No one will ever replace my husband," she said (via TRT World). "No, but I do see some similarities of my husband in JD." She also called him an "amazing man." The two then shared a hug, which saw Erika's hand making its way into JD's hair, with the vice president's hands wandering to her waist.

The moment went viral, and JD made matters worse when he said during a Q&A that he hoped his wife, Usha Vance, would eventually convert to the Christian faith (she's Hindu). This led many on the internet to surmise that Erika was, for all intents and purposes, a better fit for JD than Usha, especially if he wants to make a bid for the presidency himself. Meanwhile, on X, netizens were speculating that JD and Erika were, in fact, in a clandestine relationship and that the intimate hug was proof of that.

Erika clearly knew of the media storm that followed the infamous hug because she addressed it on "The Megyn Kelly Show" in late November 2025. "My love language is touch, if you will," Erika told Kelly, then explained, "Anyone who I've hugged that I have touched the back of your head when I hug you, I always say, 'God bless you.' That's just me. If you want to take that out of context, go right ahead. Again, that to me shows that you need a hug more than anyone else."

After that controversial hug between Erika Kirk and JD Vance, more scuttlebutt made the rounds that the two flew together on Air Force Two to attend the Turning Point USA event in Mississippi. A viral post on Facebook first made the claim, penning, "Erika Kirk took Air Force 2 to Ole Miss. When did we vote her into office? That round trip cost taxpayers $6 million." In the comment section, speculation was rife that Erika was on a "secret date with Vance." None of this is true, but the rumor quickly permeated all social media platforms.

The truth is that JD was joined by his wife, Usha Vance, on the trip to Mississippi, along with two U.S. senators, according to the official White House pool report for that day. For those still in doubt, photographs of the second lady and vice president exiting the plane that day do exist. Still, the rumor caused such an uproar that a Turning Point USA spokesperson clarified to Snopes that Erika never flew with JD, calling it "100% false."

The rumor was likely believable due to the gossip that followed Erika and JD's hug, and the fact that she had previously accompanied the vice president on Air Force Two when he flew Charlie's body back to Arizona.

As the rumor mill continued its relentless churning after Charlie Kirk's death, a viral post on X claimed that Erika Kirk's evangelical ministries, Romanian Angels and Everyday Heroes Like You, had been complicit in child trafficking in Romania. The post included screenshots of newspaper clippings pertaining to cases of child trafficking in the area, but a quick reverse image search confirmed that these articles never accused Erika or her organizations of wrongdoing and, additionally, were published in 2001, long before Erika's two ministries in question even existed.

It's said that the most believable lies have some truth to them, but in this case, it was hardly anything scandalous. Erika had, in the past, done some charity work in Romania, with Everyday Heroes Like You donating to hospitals and centers in the early 2010s. She even chronicled some of the work she did there on Instagram, posting a snap of herself with a little boy in April 2013 and captioning it, "I left a piece of me with each of these Romanian orphans. I can't wait to see them again." It appears she did some genuine good in the country through her charities. Claims that she'd engaged in any illegal activity are entirely baseless.

Thanks to the rumors surrounding Erika Kirk's charities, some conspiracy theorists have come to the conclusion that she must be in the Epstein files as well. Furthermore, they have theorized that Charlie Kirk was murdered because he initially called for the documents to be made public amid the Trump administration balking at the prospect of doing so.

It doesn't help that rumors about Erika and Donald Trump possibly having some undisclosed history were making the rounds. Thanks to Erika's participation in the Miss USA pageant in the early 2010s, netizens quickly surmised that the two might have known each other prior to Erika meeting Charlie because Trump co-owned the pageant when Erika was a contestant. It's a well-known fact that Trump's name makes several appearances in the Epstein files, and gossip started making the rounds that Erika must have known Jeffrey Epstein as well. There is no evidence to suggest that this is the case.