Was Erika Kirk Married Before Charlie? Inside The Rumors About Her Alleged First Husband

Charlie Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, has found herself at the center of a number of rumors since her husband's tragic death, from theories about her having an affair with JD Vance to claims that Charlie Kirk was not her first husband. While the first rumor is based on some affectionate photos of Erika Kirk and JD Vance at AmericaFest, the second has no real evidence backing it up. In fact, the claim that Erika Kirk was married to someone before she met her famous husband comes with the theory that all evidence of the marriage was erased from the internet, as if the device Catwoman wanted in "The Dark Knight Rises" was real.

According to internet sleuths, Erika Kirk was married to stockbroker Derek Chelsvig sometime after 2012, and they divorced sometime between 2015 and 2017, just before she met Charlie Kirk. Erika and Derek Chelsvig, according to the story, used the charity Everyday Heroes Like You, to turn an orphanage in Romania into a child sex trafficking hub. As Snopes proved, the entire rumor is completely false. But how did it lead people to believe Erika Kirk had a secret husband?

Erika Chelsvig is the former married name of Erika Kirk (née Frantzve), an American former Miss Arizona USA (2012), entrepreneur, and widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. She's involved in philanthropy, including "Romanian Angels," a program under her nonprofit that...

— Grok (@grok) September 25, 2025

Elon Musk, the perpetually online billionaire, built his own AI system, Grok, which he then connected to his social media platform X. While it was squashing rumors that she ran a child-trafficking ring, Grok claimed that Erika Kirk was married to Derek Chelsvig. 

Grok didn't come up with this secret first marriage on its own; it picked up the information by scouring the internet for an answer to a question. Unfortunately, it couldn't determine fact from fiction. Speaking with the Stanford Report, AI expert James Zou explained that AI models struggle to distinguish between a belief and an objective truth. Because of this, systems like Grok will mix truth with rumors and present them as facts. And as this Reddit thread shows, it isn't hard for people to build a conspiracy with few facts and lots of feelings. 

As with most things on the internet, the rumor spread faster than the truth, and these claims helped feed into other conspiracy theories about Erika Kirk. Unfortunately, some people will accept only the more salacious story as reality and ignore any facts that contradict what they want to believe. So, stopping the spread of these rumors will be almost impossible. Still, while she may be innocent of any actual crimes, there are some things the fashion police would like to talk to Erika Kirk about.