Charlie Kirk, the far-right activist and founder of the conservative student organization Turning Point USA, has made a lot of controversial comments about women, women’s bodies, and reproductive health.
He’s said birth control “screws up female brains,” that it’s “dangerous” for women to prioritize their careers over getting married and starting a family, and that women over the age of 30 are “past their prime.”
His sexist, anti-women statements have caused some to wonder: Is this guy married?
Yes, he is.
Who is Charlie Kirk’s wife?
Kirk married his wife, Erika, in 2021. The pair met in 2018 and dated “with the intention to marry.”
Erika posted on Instagram that their first date was at Bill’s Bar and Burger location in New York City and that they engaged in deep conversation about “theology, philosophy, and politics.”
“At the end, you paused, looked at me and said, ‘I’m going to date you,’” Erika wrote of Kirk on Instagram. “Dating with intention to marry is way different than dating to ‘see where it goes’. Let God write your love story.”
The pair have a young daughter.
Together, they work to push the conservative agenda across the country. Erika Kirk often speaks at Charlie’s Turning Point USA events—two years ago she gave a speech on how toxic boss babe culture and comparing oneself to others harms women.
“Don’t get distracted by the noise or temptations of everyday life,” Erika Kirk said in her speech. “Make worthy plans. Set worthy goals … Get behind God’s plans for your life.”
But she does run her own boss babe empire: She owns Proclaim Streetwear, a clothing brand that sells Christianity-themed baby onesies, reusable straws, T-shirts, and jackets, and she and Kirk also founded Biblein365, an app that helps users to read the entire Bible throughout one year.
This year is their eighth year running the reading challenge.
“My wife Erika and I want to personally invite you to join us at Biblein365 as we read the whole Bible—cover to cover—in one year,” Kirk said in a December 2023 video, promoting the upcoming 2024 effort.
She also hosts a religious podcast called “Midweek Rise Up” that provides listeners with “Monday Meditations” on subjects like holy fear, kindness, and seasons of change. Kirk also appeared on one of the episodes opposite his wife.
In “Tough Love,” the pair discussed courtship, marriage, and the modern-day dating pool.
“If you don’t have a partner, it’s not because of the world … You’re not trying hard enough, honey, I’m sorry,” Kirk said about women who are single. “It’s about showing up, going to church, making yourself as attractive as possible.”
Before she was Ms. Charlie Kirk, Erika won the Ms. Arizona beauty pageant in 2011 and played basketball at Regis University. She also founded the non-profit Everyday Heroes like You, which raised money for other nonprofits, in 2006. But its online domain now redirects to Proclaim Streetwear.
On Kirk, Erika said he loves, empowers, encourages, supports, protects, guides, cherishes, and honors her.
“I love you @charliekirk1776,” she wrote in a July 2023 Instagram post. “And ladies, don’t settle. Seek that Ephesians 5 marriage. I promise you, the wait is worth it.”
Ephesians 5 is a Bible verse that says wives should submit to their husbands “for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church.”
She provided clarification on their dynamic in a podcast episode with Kirk: Erika said submits to Kirk like a “helpmate,” not as if she were a slave and he were her master.
“Because you and your husband are one,” Erika said.
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