In a stadium filled with grief, reverence, and resolve, Erika Kirk stood before tens of thousands and revealed to the world what true grace looks like. Her husband, Charlie Kirk, had been gunned down just days earlier — assassinated while doing what he loved most, defending truth and engaging young Americans. And yet, when Erika approached the podium at State Farm Stadium, her message was not of rage or bitterness. It was one of faith, forgiveness, and love.
The crowd greeted her with a standing ovation, and she paused for a moment to gather strength before beginning. What followed was an emotional testimony that blended heartbreak with unshakable conviction. She recounted arriving at the Utah hospital on September 10 to face the unthinkable: seeing her husband’s lifeless body. She described the shock and the horror, but also the extraordinary mercy she found in a detail only a wife would notice — “the faintest smile” still on his lips. That, she said, told her he had not suffered.
“Our little secret … it was love notes.”
“Every Saturday, Charlie wrote one for me — and he never missed a Saturday.”
Erika Kirk reveals how she and her late husband, Charlie Kirk, kept their marriage so strong…
“He would always end it with asking the most beautiful… pic.twitter.com/xqHS1t7gid
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 21, 2025
Erika’s words lifted the room beyond mourning. She reminded those gathered that after Charlie’s assassination, there were no riots, no vengeance, no calls to violence. Instead, there was what Charlie had prayed for: revival. His life ended too soon, but it was a life without regrets — “incomplete work, but not unfinished business,” as Erika put it.
Her tribute moved from memory to exhortation. She shared their Saturday tradition of love notes, every one of them ending with the same question from Charlie: “Please let me know how I can better serve you as a husband.” From that, she offered a charge to the men listening: to embrace true manhood, to lead with courage and humility, to love and protect their families as spiritual heads of their homes. “Be a leader worth following,” she urged, reminding them that a wife is not a servant or rival, but one flesh with her husband, united for the glory of God.
WATCH: Erika Kirk on the suspected assassin who took Charlie Kirk’s life: “That young man, I forgive him.” pic.twitter.com/UkS6CieGIt
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 21, 2025
To the women, Erika counseled virtue and guarded hearts — a vision of Christian marriage and family that was both deeply personal and universally resonant.
Then came the moment that left the stadium breathless. Weeping, yet steady in her conviction, Erika turned her words toward her husband’s killer: “My husband Charlie wanted to save young men, just like the one who took his life … That man, that young man, I forgive him. I forgive him because it is what Christ did, and is what Charlie would do. The answer to hate is not hate. The answer, we know from the Gospel, is love, and always love.”
One of the most touching things I’ve ever seen. And the truly right message. pic.twitter.com/mKk5RVeNWA
— James O’Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) September 21, 2025
