While accepting an honorary doctorate from Hillsdale College on behalf of herself and her late husband, Charlie Kirk, Erika Kirk described the first day of her honeymoon with the Turning Point USA cofounder.
“To all of you here — parents, class of 2026, faculty and staff — it’s an honor to be here. It’s an honor to accept the degrees that I will be receiving later on behalf of myself and Charlie,” Erika, 37, said while addressing the 2026 graduating class of Hillsdale College, a Christian liberal arts college located in southern Michigan.
“On a lighter note, yesterday was my wedding anniversary and I couldn’t help but think of a funny story to share with you through obviously a lot of pain,” she continued. “When we got married and we went to our honeymoon the next day, we decided for our honeymoon it would be a disconnected honeymoon — meaning no computers, no cell phones, just being able to pour into each other, plan out what our family life would look like, what type of parents we want to be, what type of spouse we want to be, so really just put into each other.”
She added, “So again, no phones, but at the time Charlie’s assistant gave Charlie a bat phone for emergencies, so there were only emergency phone numbers on this phone — nothing else. So when we arrive we go straight to the gym, because that’s what we did, and I’m on one side of the gym, Charlie’s on the other, and all of a sudden he pulled out the bat phone.”
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After assuming her late husband — who died in September 2025 after he was shot while speaking at Utah Valley University — was using the phone to listen to music while he worked out, she realized he was actually listening to lectures from the Hillsdale College president, Dr. Larry Arnn.
“So, I walk over to him and I was like, ‘Baby, what are you listening to?’ He’s like, ‘I know, I’m almost done. I just have to finish just a few more lectures from Dr. Arnn, I have a few more certificates I have to get from my online courses at Hillsdale — we’re almost there, I can’t skip.’”
She added, “I enjoyed it because I was learning about Churchill, too — when he was working out I was working out, it was a great little bonding moment. But every time Charlie finished a Hillsdale program online, he would screenshot the certificate of completion and he would send them to me every time, and he would send them to the team as well.”
Elsewhere in her commencement address, Erika called on men to serve as providers while women serve as nurturers.
“To the men, you are called to provide, you are called to lead, to anchor your families in strength and consistency,” she said. “To the women, you are called to nurture, to build, to shape lives with wisdom and endurance.”
Erika — who took over as Turning Point CEO following her husband’s untimely death — has been criticized for her numerous public appearances in the wake of Charlie’s assassination.
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“Erika Kirk leaving the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in tears [saying], ‘I just wanna go home,’” Selling Sunset star Christine Quinn wrote over footage of Kirk leaving the April 25 event after a gunman allegedly stormed a security checkpoint with what authorities say was the goal of assassinating President Donald Trump and other key members of his cabinet.
“Girl… you literally never been home,” Quinn added.
After breaking her silence after the shooting, Erika claimed she attended the dinner because she wanted to look certain reporters in the face.
