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In the time since her husband’s assassination, Erika Kirk has become a major figure in her own right. Unfortunately, fame and kindness don’t always go hand-in-hand, and Erika’s newfound status has prompted a ton of criticism from other celebrities. From Candace Owens to Bravolebs, let’s get into it.
We’ll start with Candace Owens, whose criticism started off fairly light. In an early November 2025 episode of “Candace,” the podcaster opined that she didn’t think it was appropriate that Erika was named CEO of Turning Point USA so soon after her husband’s death. More specifically, she said it wasn’t fair that Erika was allowing for business as usual and for TPUSA Chief of Staff Mikey McCoy to speak at events while they declined to talk about the assassination or the investigation into it. “The messaging that is coming out of Turning Point USA — so this is Erika in her CEO and her chairman capacity — has just been unacceptable, right? It can’t be both. … You can’t want fame only on your command,” Owens said in a thinly-veiled swipe that also saw her compare Erika to Meghan Markle, whom she has long been openly critical of.
Owens later doubled down on her Erika criticism while speaking to troubled comedian-turned-evangelical podcaster Russell Brand. “She should never have become the CEO and chairman overnight, because now when people have questions, you gotta answer them, right? Now you’re not just a grieving widow, which there has to be respectability for, and space, and allow her to be a mother, but you very quickly decided that you were equipped to be Charlie,” Owens mused. Like we said, this was when Owens was still keeping things relatively tame — but more on her switcheroo from tough love to outright condemnation in a sec.
Jennifer Welch called Erika a ‘Grifter’
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Whereas Candace Owens’ criticism of Erika Kirk began on a somewhat gentle note, “Sweet Home Oklahoma” alum Jennifer Welch came out swinging right out of the gate.
In an episode of the “I’ve Had It” podcast, which she co-hosts with her former Bravo co-star Angie Sullivan, she started off by criticizing Erika for the role she played in the MAGA movement. She also called her out for her bizarre comments to The New York Times about Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral win (ICYMI, Erika said women voted for him as a replacement for husbands). Specifically, Welch pointed out that despite publicly advocating for women to stay in the home, she was a CEO. “You actually allow yourself to be afforded all of the luxuries of all of the civil rights fight that the suffragettes and other women fought for you to be able to be a full-time working mother, to be the CEO of a company. You just weaponize your gender to rubes so that you can grift off of them,” Welch slammed.
Welch went on to call out Erika’s outfit choice for her New York Times interview, pointing out how obvious it was that she’d gone for something less (in Welch’s words) “Tammy Faye Bakker” coded for a different audience. “For you to sit there and know enough and to be smart enough that if you were dressed in your lace Tammy Faye Bakker outfit with tarantula eyes and the big bouffant evangelical hair that you couldn’t stroll up to the New York Times and sit down and be taken seriously … You are an opportunistic grifter who weaponizes your gender to demean women,” she said. Yikes.
Christine Quinn had some choice words for Erika Kirk
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A few days after her interview with The New York Times, Erika Kirk did another sit-down. This time, it was a Town Hall with CBS News’ editor-in-chief Bari Weiss (Erika’s makeup for which sparked more Tammy Faye Bakker comparisons, but we digress). In her “I’ve Had It” episode, Jennifer Welch had expressed her frustration with the interview, but it turned out she wasn’t the only reality star to feel some type of way about it. Enter, “Selling Sunset” alum Christine Quinn.
“Erika Kirk be everywhere but with her kids,” Quinn penned in a post on X. At the time, some news outlets mused that the comment had come out of nowhere, though there’s a possibility it had something to do with the fact that the CBS Town Hall was filmed the same day. Either way, the real estate agent doubled down on her stance in reply to one of her followers, who had pointed out the hypocrisy of Kirk being a busy working mother when she and her husband had been so outspoken against that for other women. The follower had written, “Charlie told women to stay at home and raise kids and his wife be doing the complete opposite.” Quinn’s reply? A short, simple, but pointed, “THIS.”
It’s worth noting that Quinn also seemed to agree with Candace Owens’ stance on the CBS Town Hall. This, after another X user replied to her original post with a clip of Owens mocking the widow for having enough time to do a press tour. “Candy stay standing on business,” Quinn quipped in response.
Candace Owens began an all-out feud with Erika Kirk
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Speaking of Candace Owens’ response to Erika Kirk’s CBS News Town Hall, some will know that it was the interview with Bari Weiss that prompted things between Owens and Erika to go from slightly icy to full-on nuclear. Granted, Erika’s Fox News interview shortly prior had already seen the widow hint at serious tension between them. She was visibly upset while begging podcasters who she claimed were making serious money by sharing conspiracy theories about Charlie Kirk’s death to stop what they were doing. Fast-forward to Owens talking about the Town Hall on “Candace,” the podcaster took a beat, then responded, “No.” In the same episode, Owens also criticized Erika once again for becoming Turning Point USA’s CEO when she was still grieving, and called her out for telling people not to go after what she deemed her “family.” “This is not a child. Turning Point USA is an organization,” Owens pointed out.
Of course, Owens did close out the episode by saying she didn’t want to fight with Erika. In fact, she shared, “I also want to be clear, my beef is not with Erika. That is what they’re pushing now, that if you question it, you’re up against Erika. I’ve been the same Candace since I got into politics. … I’m always going to stand up to, I guess, pop culture.”
That may have been the case — but relations didn’t exactly warm up after that. In fact, despite what seemed to be a decent meeting between the two in December 2025, the following month, in addition to continuing to ask questions about Erika’s response to Charlie’s assassination, Owens also published footage of leaked calls from the Turning Point USA CEO to her team. Enter, more drama.
Christina Haack found leaked videos of Erika ‘disturbing’
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Given everything Candace Owens had already said about Erika Kirk, it probably didn’t come as a surprise to many that she had a field day releasing leaked calls of the widow speaking to the Turning Point USA staff. Among the things Erika had said were that Charlie Kirk’s memorial service had brought in major merch sales, and she even called it the “event of the century.” One well-known face who felt uncomfortable about that? HGTV star Christina Haack.
“This was next level disturbing,” Haack wrote in an Instagram comment under the video. After a fan responded to say they were impressed she was following along, she replied with another comment that had us thinking she probably isn’t open to seeing things from Erika’s perspective. “I made sure to let my people know if anyone was talking about my ‘merch’ right after I died I would 100% haunt them,” she quipped.
Eagle-eyed Instagram users may be aware that that wasn’t the first time Haack hinted at not liking Erika. Au contraire, when Owens shared her video saying she’d stop lying if Erika told her what she’d lied about to Instagram, Haack had also given a subtle vote of support. “Can’t stop won’t stop,” she’d commented, clapping emoji in tow. Yup. Definitely not an Erika fan.
Joy Reid doesn’t like Erika Kirk, either
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Of course, no roundup of Erika Kirk’s celebrity critics would be complete without mentioning those who called her out for her cozy hug with JD Vance in October 2025. One particularly vocal star? Joy Reid, who joked about it on an episode of “I’ve Had It.” In response to fellow Erika critic Jennifer Welch poking fun at the inappropriate hug, Reid quipped, “Holding on the back of his head and rubbing on his head … why you holding the back of his head?” Reid went on to add that she didn’t think Erika was behaving like she’d expect a newly bereaved wife to. “You’re not doing the right thing. You’re supposed to be a widow — you’re in leather pants? That’s not widow wear!” she joked.
It’s worth noting that Erika clapped back at Reid in a playful way the following month, joking on stage at AmericaFest 2025, “Joy Reid probably needs a really, really good hug. And, honestly, I’m here for it if she needs it. I’ve got a good hug for you. … I’ll even touch the back of your head” (via “The Joy Reid Show”). Suffice it to say, Reid wasn’t keen on the olive branch. Far from it, she quipped on her show, “No, no. Absolutely not. Uh, don’t come near me. Don’t touch me. Okay, first of all, do not.” Talk about drawing a clear line in the sand.
Time will tell how Erika adjusts to her new, much more public life. She’s certainly had a lot of hate to deal with early on — and given just how vocal her detractors have been, we’re not expecting that to change any time soon.