Erika Kirk opened up about the painful reality of losing her husband.
She bared her soul.
And Erika Kirk broke down sharing one gut-wrenching detail about life without Charlie.
The small moments that haunt her most
Erika Kirk appeared on Fox & Friends Tuesday morning to talk about how she and her children are coping three months after Charlie Kirk's assassination at Utah Valley University.
The host asked how the family was holding up.
What came next was one of the most heartbreaking moments in television.
Every Friday night it was a family tradition for her, Charlie, and the kids to have dinner at her mom's house—and those weren't religious obligations, they were about connection.
No screens, no distractions, just family sitting around the table asking each other about their week.
Her mom, who's battling a rare illness, considered Charlie her "favorite child"—a running family joke that captured how deeply he'd become part of the family.
"But what I miss most. What really just hits me hard is when I'm in the grocery store, and I see his hot sauce, I want to buy it, or it's the little things," Kirk said as tears started flowing.
"His clothes everywhere… It's the little things."
"And I know that people who have experienced loss totally understand what I'm saying. It's the small things that just get you," she added, wiping tears from her eyes.
"It's the visual of daddy coming home and, to the world, he was Charlie Kirk, but to us, he was the love of my life. My children's dad."
The Fox host reassured Erika that getting emotional was completely understandable.
But Erika pressed on, painting a picture that millions of families would recognize—the sound of someone you love walking through the door at the end of the day.
"It's the little things where again he would walk through the door and drop his bags, 'daddy's home.' Take his phone, Friday night, Shabbat Shallom, throw it in the junk drawer, and it was just all us."
A message for married couples everywhere
Through her tears, Erika delivered advice that anyone who's ever lost someone they love wishes they could go back and follow.
"And I just want to encourage spouses, don't get mad," Kirk said.
"It's so easy. Don't do it."
Three simple words that carry the weight of devastating experience: Don't get mad.
The bags dropped in the entryway, the hot sauce in the grocery store, the clothes lying around—those aren't annoyances.
They're evidence someone you love is still there.
Erika Kirk knows what it's like to walk past the hot sauce aisle and realize you'll never buy that brand again because the person who loved it is gone.
She knows what it's like to see clothes in the closet that'll never be worn again.
She understands with brutal clarity that all those "little things" married couples bicker about aren't actually problems at all.
Since Charlie's assassination on September 10, Erika has stepped into his role at Turning Point USA, carrying forward his mission to inspire the next generation of conservatives.
She's become the voice and face of an organization her husband built from nothing into a conservative powerhouse.
But on Fox & Friends, she wasn't Turning Point USA's leader.
She was a widow who misses seeing her husband walk through the door, drop his bags, and announce "daddy's home."
Those Friday night dinners at her mom's house continue.
But there's an empty chair at the table now where Charlie used to sit.
¹ Katie Jerkovich, "'It's the Little Things': Erika Kirk on Charlie's Absence and Her Wise Message to Married Couples," RedState, December 9, 2025.
² The Patriot Oasis, X post, December 10, 2025.
