Candace Owens is diving deep into Erika Kirk‘s (née Frantzve) past, claiming Kirk lied about how she got involved in the pageant world.
During the Friday, February 27, episode of Owens’ Bride of Charlie YouTube series, Owens, 36, denied Kirk’s previous statement about starting her pageant career after getting a letter in the mail that said someone “nominated” her to participate in an event.
“If you have to say you weren’t groomed for something, you probably were,” Owens said. “And the reality is that every single year, from 2005 through to 2012, Erika was involved in beauty pageants. That’s seven years of her life that we could find. There could be more.”
Owens insinuated that Kirk’s mother, Lori Frantzve, was the one to get her involved and that Kirk, 37, likely had her own motivations, claiming that she made certain connections over the years to improve her social status and land a husband like Charlie Kirk.
She continued, “I should also add here that some pageant women disputed [Erika’s] narrative, they wrote to us, that she was just randomly invited. They said that minors, in particular, are not just freely solicited to join the pageant world and that their photo has to be submitted by a parent or a guardian. I’m not an expert on that.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Erika Kirk for comment.
Erika’s pageant history was previously mentioned in the second episode of Owens’ Bride of Charlie docuseries earlier this week, where Owens reacted to the Turning Point USA executive’s 2020 interview about her journey.
“The pageant world is something that was an interesting season of life,” Erika said in the now-resurfaced clip. “It was nothing that I was ever groomed for. It was nothing that was ever on my radar.”
Erika further claimed that she was nominated to participate in Miss Arizona USA when she was still in school.
“I thought, if I were to ever win this, the most important thing out of it would be to be able to make a difference with the title,” she said. “I don’t care about the photo shoots. I just want to be able to overbook myself, being able to get involved with the local communities [and] organizations that are actually making a difference. The pageant world, for me, was something that was not a form of narcissism. It was more along the terms of being a steward for my state.”
Owens, however, didn’t believe Erika.
“Erika has been involved in pageants from the very beginning. Her mother is definitely the person who pushed that,” Owens claimed in her Thursday, February 25, YouTube episode. “Erika, without question and anybody who’s being objective and honest and looking at her history of the people that she’s dated and the people wanted to be in close proximity to can guarantee that this girl wanted to be famous, like, very badly.”
Erika, who was married to conservative commentator Charlie before his 2025 death, won Miss Arizona USA in 2012. She went on to participate in Miss USA 2012 seven years before making her reality TV debut on Bravo’s Summer House. Erika and her then-boyfriend, JT Massey, later auditioned for The Amazing Race in 2014.
Erika has not publicly addressed any of her alleged pursuits of fame, most recently staying focused on running Charlie’s Turning Point USA organization and raising their kids in light of his death. Charlie was shot and killed in September 2025 during a speaking engagement. He was 31.
“Charlie loved life. He loved his life, he loved America, he loved nature which always helped him closer to God,” Erika said in a statement at the time. “He loved the Chicago Cubs and my goodness did he love the Oregon Ducks. Most of all, Charlie loved his children and he loved me with all of his heart and I knew that everyday. He made sure I knew that everyday.”
Erika, who shared two children with Charlie, was named the new CEO and chairperson of Turning Point following his assassination.
“I didn’t ask for this. It’s, obviously, a blessing,” Erika said of becoming a working mother during a CBS News town hall in December 2025. “I view it as a blessing [and] a duty to my husband, but I was very happy being a stay-at-home mom. There’s nothing wrong with being a mother. There’s actually [no] more beautiful and emotional and powerful ‘job title,’ if you will, [than] being a mother.”
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