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Candace Owens is raising questions about Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, in her new multi-part docuseries, Bride of Charlie, exploring Erika’s upbringing and background.
“I will tell you my personal opinion and experience with her. What alarms me about Erika isn’t so much the fact that she lies, which we will prove to you over and over again, but it’s also the fact that I don’t know that she’s aware that she’s lying,” Owens, 36, alleged in the Wednesday, February 25, episode, titled “A Wrinkle In Time.”
In the first installment, Owens accuses Erika, 37, of misrepresenting herself to the public by claiming she was raised by a single mother, alleging that Erika’s claim is merely scratching the surface of what Owens described is a far more complicated and carefully curated narrative.
Owens began her segment by addressing investigative journalist Elizabeth Lane’s viral tweet suggesting that Erika’s public image is not authentic, noting that is just her “opinion” from “consistent, observable patterns of behavior.”
Owens echoed that sentiment and doubled down on various conspiracy theories that claim Erika is not “simply a grieving widow,” going on to accuse the Turning Point USA CEO of fabricating details about her past for potentially nefarious reasons.
Erika took over the role as Turning Point CEO after her husband, Charlie, was fatally shot in the neck while speaking at an outdoor event on the Utah Valley University campus on September 10, 2025. He was 31.
Owens said that Erika prides herself on being raised by a “strong, independent, entrepreneurial single mother [Lori Frantzve] who taught her how to be a good Christian,” claiming that Erika’s father, Kent Frantzve, was very much in the picture and, at one point, a stay-at-home dad.
The podcaster referenced Erika’s September 2025 profile in The New York Times, in which Erika said being a single mother to her and Charlie’s two kids was “actually the least traumatizing” aspect of her new reality, as she was raised by a single mother herself after her parents divorced. She went on to describe her mother as her “blueprint.”
Erika Kirk receives a standing ovation during U.S. President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Owens said Erika’s image is cultivated by “seeding the public with the idea that you can raise kids, and be a single mom, and also be a CEO and boss babe it.”
“The only problem is that it’s just not true. Erika was not raised by a single mother, like, at all,” Owens alleged, further claiming that Kent was “always” in Erika’s life. “So much so that for entire years of her childhood, Kent was actually a stay-at-home dad. So almost the exact opposite thing was true at one point.”
Owens then played a clip of Erika defending stay-at-home dads while chatting with Charlie on an episode of “The Charlie Kirk Show” podcast, noting her father was a stay-at-home dad for a few years.
“And I gotta say it was really sweet. And really special. I was 4,” Erika said in the clip.
The late Charlie Kirk’s wife, Erika Kirk, is addressing criticism over the way she has publicly grieved her husband’s untimely death. “…there is no linear blueprint for grief. One day you’re collapsed on the floor crying out the name Jesus in between labored breaths,” Erika, 36, wrote via Instagram on Saturday, October 11. “The next […]
Owens said Erika was 10 years old when her parents divorced in 1998, “so her father was very much a part of her early childhood and he did not stop being involved in her teenaged years either,” citing conversations she had with classmates and past boyfriends of Erika.
Owens also mentioned that Erika had a stepfather, Larry Ginta, who was a “fixture” in her life “since before her parents’ divorce was ever finalized.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Erika Kirk and Turning Point USA for comment.
After Owens released the trailer for her “investigative docuseries,” several supporters defended Erika online, who received a standing ovation at President Trump’s State of the Union address in Washington on Tuesday, February 24, accusing Owens of using her platform to smear Erika’s image.
“She’s a conspiratorial, evil person,” Ben Shapiro said of Owens during the Tuesday, February 24, episode of “The Ben Shapiro Show” podcast.
