Erika Kirk Reveals What JD Vance Told Her During Their ‘Intense’ Onstage Hug

Erika Kirk says she’s baffled by the online uproar over a recent embrace with Vice President JD Vance.

Kirk appeared at a Turning Point USA event on Oct. 29 — seven weeks after the assassination of her husband, conservative activist Charlie Kirk — where she stepped onstage as the organization’s new CEO. After honoring her late husband, she introduced Vance to the audience.

“No one will ever replace my husband,” Kirk, 37, told the crowd. “But I do see some similarities of my husband in JD — in Vice President JD Vance. I do. And that’s why I am so blessed to be able to introduce him tonight.”

When Vance, 41, joined her onstage, the two shared a long, tight hug. Kirk briefly placed her hand at the back of his head, while Vance’s hands rested momentarily at her waist.

Clips of the moment spread quickly online, sparking a wave of commentary about their body language and whether the hug was appropriate given Kirk’s recent loss and Vance’s marital status.

Kirk pushed back on the scrutiny during an appearance with Megyn Kelly at a live event on Saturday, Nov. 22 in Phoenix, where she explained that affectionate gestures are simply part of who she is.

“My love language is touch, if you will,” she told the audience.

Kirk then walked through the moment step by step, saying the room had just watched an emotional video tribute when she and Vance approached each other.

“I’m starting to cry,” she recalled. “He says, ‘I’m so proud of you.’ And I say, ‘God bless you,’ and I touch the back of his head.”

She added that this is a consistent habit for her. “Anyone whom I have hugged, that I have touched the back of your head when I hug you, I always say, ‘God bless you.’”

Kelly joked that critics were acting as if it were a far more intimate move, and Kirk laughed along, saying the reaction would probably have been less severe if she had actually done something more obviously inappropriate.

A little over a week after the Turning Point USA event, Kirk attended the swearing-in ceremony of Sergio Gor as the new U.S. ambassador to India. She embraced Gor in a similarly warm way. Gor had worked closely with her late husband during the White House transition following President Trump’s second inauguration.

Kirk’s comments about the hug also come amid fresh internet chatter about the Vances’ marriage after Usha Vance was seen without her wedding ring during a Nov. 19 visit to Camp Lejeune alongside first lady Melania Trump. Usha and JD Vance have been married since 2014 and share three children: sons Ewan, 8, and Vivek, 5, and daughter Mirabel, 3.

A spokesperson for the second lady addressed the missing ring in a brief statement, noting that she is “a mother of three young children, who does a lot of dishes, gives lots of baths, and forgets her ring sometimes.”