Erika Kirk recounted the earth-shattering moment she learned her husband, Charlie Kirk, had been shot, in her first interview since his assassination, during which she also lamented that she “didn’t get to give him a kiss” before he left home for the doomed event.

The 36-year-old widow of the late conservative activist, 31, was at her mother’s doctor’s appointment on Sept. 10 and had been monitoring the Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University on her phone when she received an unusual call from Michael McCoy, the chief of staff for the influential student group.

“I’ll never forget,” Kirk told Fox News host Jesse Watters. “I’m just being like, ‘Charlie’s been shot. He’s been shot. Get the kids. Get security. Get the kids. Get the kids. He’s been shot.’

Erika Kirk being interviewed on the set of "The Charlie Kirk Show."
Erika Kirk’s interview with Jesse Waters aired in its entirety Wednesday, as the grieving widow recalled the harrowing moment she learned her husband Charlie had been shot.Fox News

Erika Kirk crying and wiping her eye with a tissue.
“I’ll never forget,” Kirk told Watters. “I’m just being like, ‘Charlie’s been shot. He’s been shot. Get the kids. Get security. Get the kids. Get the kids. He’s been shot.’Fox News
“I sprinted out of her treatment center, just collapsed in the middle of the parking lot, called our security,” she recalled. “Unbelievable nightmar

McCoy told “Jesse Watters Primetime” that it was “the first time I’ve ever called” Erika during a Turning Point USA campus tour stop.

Charlie Kirk, U.S. right-wing activist, speaks into a microphone at a Utah Valley University event.
Charlie Kirk appears at a Utah Valley University speaking event in Orem, Utah – just moments before being fatally shot.via REUTERS
“I just remember it rang like three or four times. I didn’t know what to say. Those are the words that will change someone’s life forever, and you have to be the one to say it,” he said.

Erika further recalled that the morning of the assassination, Charlie had left their Arizona home very early in the morning to get to the event in Orem, Utah, and that she urged him to sleep in their daughter’s bedroom alone that night before.

“I said, ‘I want you to have a good night’s sleep. Go ahead and sleep in her room, and I’ll turn the air down so it’s nice and cozy in there … I just want you to get a good night’s sleep so you can be amazing tomorrow,’” she told Watters in the emotional sit-down.

Erika Kirk sits in a dark green suit, holding a tissue, with a man in a dark suit sitting opposite her, on the set of "The Charlie Kirk Show."
Erika Kirk recalled the day of her husband’s assassination in detail, saying that she wanted him to sleep in their daughter’s room that night before.Fox News
“And so Gigi and I stayed in our room, and that morning he woke up super early, and he came into our bedroom, into the bathroom, because that’s where his wedding ring was and his necklace, and he came in and he grabbed that and then he left. I didn’t get to give him a kiss,” Kirk revealed.

She would get her kiss later in the evening — as Charlie lay mortally wounded on a hospital bed.

Erika said she was advised by doctors and a police officer to wait until his body was taken to the mortuary to see him, but she refused.

An office room filled with portraits, crosses, and other mementos for Charlie Kirk.
Erika Kirk revealed that she was not able to give Charlie a kiss the morning of his assassination.Fox News
“I said, ‘With all due respect, sir, I want to see what they did to my husband, and I want to give him a kiss, because I didn’t get to give him a kiss this morning.”‘

Charlie was gunned down while headlining an event for TPUSA, the conservative activism organization he founded in 2012.

His alleged assassin, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, has been charged with first-degree murder and potentially faces death by firing squad if convicted.

Mugshot of Tyler Robinson.
Robinson potentially faces death by firing squad if convicted for the assassination.AP
Erika Kirk, a former beauty queen and college basketball player, married Charlie in May 2021.

The couple had two children together, a 1-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter.

“It’s really sweet because I keep explaining to her a few things, and I said, ‘if you ever want to talk to daddy you just look up to the sky and start talking, and he can hear you,” Erika said of her young daughter.

Charlie and Erika Kirk with their two children on stage.
Erika and Charlie Kirk smile at each other while holding their children.Instagram/mrserikakirk
“I told her, ‘You know, daddy is in heaven’ — and she goes, ‘Do you think I could go sometime?’” Kirk said, wiping away tears.

“I said, ‘Baby, we will all go one day.’”

The grieving widow also revealed that she initially thought Charlie would survive the shooting — but realized he was mortally wounded once she saw him in the hospital.

Erika Kirk gives a child a stuffed lion while surrounded by many boxes.
The couple had two children together, a 1-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter.Fox News
“We walked into that room, and he had this smirk on his face,” she said. “That smirk to me is that look of ‘you thought you stopped what I’ve built. You thought you could end this vision, this movement, this revival. You thought you could do that by murdering me.

“You got my body, but you didn’t get my soul.”

Erika Kirk was named president of Turning Point USA in the wake of her husband’s death.

Charlie and Erika Kirk hugging and smiling.
Erika Kirk revealed that she initially thought Charlie would survive the shooting.Instagram/mrserikakirk
Last week, she spoke at her first campus event since the assassination of her husband.

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Vice President JD Vance, who helped bring Charlie’s body back to Arizona after the tragedy in Utah, appeared onstage with Erika at the packed University of Mississippi rally and Q&A session – a hallmark of the late TPUSA founder’s events.

A Fox Nation documentary series, “This Is the Turning Point,” will air later Wednesday evening and feature behind-the-scenes footage of Erika Kirk as she assumed leadership of her husband’s influential organization.