Candace Owens is accusing Erika Kirk and her mom, Lori Frantzve, of being social climbers.
Talking on episode 2 of her docuseries, Bride of Charlie, which dropped on Thursday, February 26, Owens claimed Erika37, and Lori have lengthy held ambitions of being well-known.
The conservative podcast host, 36, instructed that Lori had usually inspired Erika to work the room, even earlier than Erika married distinguished right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. (Charlie was shot useless at Utah college campus on September 10, 2025.)
“What individuals have stated to me is she is the one that has all the time been the particular person in Erika’s ear. She’s this sort An individual that tells her who to go after in every room. She is aware of who these persons are, who Erika ought to immediately remodel into, what she has to say,” Owens stated within the episode.
She continued, “I imply, certainly one of (Erika’s) exes was very clear. He stated to me, ‘I used to be warned by one other particular person within the magnificence pageant world that that lady will do something to get to the highest and her mom will do something to assist her get to the highest.”
Owens went on to assert that outsiders suspected that Lori has possible been “the particular person in her ear” but additionally instructed that Erika was a prepared participant on this as she had related targets.
“She needed Erika to be well-known. However let’s not take away Erika from this. Erika desperately needed to be well-known. Nobody can deny that,” Owens added.
Owens additionally referenced Erika’s previous relationships, together with JT Massey. Erika and Massey, her then-boyfriend, auditioned to compete on The Wonderful Race collectively in 2014.

Erika Kirk.
(Picture by Win McNamee/Getty Pictures)“Tomorrow once we now start in earnest to undergo Erika’s life, you will notice she’s by no means dated a standard man. She’s by no means dated a man with a nine-to-five job,” Owens continued. “You’ll be able to see, like, she was going to be with any person. She was, ‘Okay, you’re going to the NFL. You’re going to the MLB. We could be on the Wonderful Race collectively.’”
Us Weekly has reached out to representatives for Erika Kirk and Lori Frantze for remark.
Erika took over the position as Turning Level CEO after her husband, Charlie, was fatally shot within the neck whereas talking at an out of doors occasion on the Utah Valley College campus on September 10, 2025. He was 31. (A 22-year-old male was arrested in reference to the capturing on September 11, 2025, however has but to enter a plea.)
Owens, a former Turning Level USA communications director, has grown more and more essential of Erika since Charlie’s demise.
In January, Owens leaked audio of Erika, which was reportedly recorded two weeks after Charlie was fatally shot, and instructed the widow was probably shifting on too quick from the loss.
“That’s shifting fairly rapidly to the acceptance section now,” Owens instructed her viewers on the time. “We all know everyone grieves otherwise. In my creativeness, I simply thought she can be extra upset.”
For her half, Erika shared a tribute to Charlie through her Instagram to commemorate turning 37 on February 20.
“I all the time cherished celebrating you, and perhaps as a result of it was a mirrored image of how superbly you all the time celebrated me. I romanticized rising outdated with you, the love of my life,” Erika, who has a son and daughter with Charlie, shared. “I used to marvel what our faces would appear to be with wisdom-wrinkles. You’d all the time inform me the way you hoped I’d maintain my lengthy hair even once we had been each grey and in addition that l’d all the time put on white (as a result of it was the colour you really liked me carrying probably the most).”
Erika added, “We’d giggle about the way you’d in all probability nonetheless be out on faculty campuses in your 80s, doing ‘Show Me Fallacious’ campus occasions since you cherished these college students. After which we’d each begin to tear up when speaking about our infants rising older and having a household of their very own. A full life.”
