Brittany Aldean experienced a mix of emotions while attending Charlie Kirk’s memorial service in Arizona on Sunday.
The 37-year-old joined her husband, Jason Aldean, and nearly 100,000 others at State Farm Stadium to honor the Turning Point founder, who was tragically shot outside of Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.
Reflecting on the day in an Instagram post, Brittany called the service “overwhelming” but said she was inspired by how Kirk “impacted people.”
“Yesterday we went to Charlie’s funeral service in Arizona, and it was vastly different than what I anticipated in the sense that it was just so faith-based,” Brittany wrote. “I knew it was going to be, but everyone was worshiping … everybody. There was just something different in the room.”
Speakers at the service included President Donald Trump, Kirk’s wife Erika, and United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Brittany added, “This man’s legacy that he has left, the impact that he’s had on so many people … like, I knew he had impacted a ton of people, but this feels different. His death does feel like – everyone said in the services – a revival. It’s putting more people in touch with their faith and making such a difference in so many lives, and it was very apparent yesterday.”
She continued, “It was overwhelming. I expected to go in there and cry the whole time. I brought this big thing of tissues, and instead, it was weirdly positive and extremely sad, but it was awesome to hear stories about him personally … how he’s impacted people, how he’s going to be so missed, but that his legacy was so large.”
“He had a different purpose in life, and it was just so good to hear people say that. There was just a different plan that was greater for him that God knew,” Brittany said. “It left me feeling more positive after the service, and he’s obviously so missed. Something’s different about this.”
Brittany concluded, “They keep saying live like Charlie, so I’m going to really try to do that daily.”
The Aldeans were among several prominent figures who paid tribute to Kirk in Glendale.
During an appearance on “Fox & Friends,” Savannah Chrisley — who had planned to join Kirk on a college campus tour before his death — spoke about the profound influence the conservative activist had on her life and why continuing his mission matters.
“I think when this assassin did take Charlie’s life, that was the turning point for him,” Chrisley said. “He thought he was ending Charlie’s life, but he really just created millions and millions of Charlie’s followers to fight. To fight for our freedom, to fight for us to have a voice. For me to watch it, it’s so sad and it breaks my heart. To see Erika [Charlie’s wife] step in as a woman and take on this role, Charlie knew that if he couldn’t do it, she was the only one that could do it.”
Chrisley shared that Kirk “gave [her] a voice in times when she felt she didn’t have one.”
“I was so excited to get to sit next to Charlie and open up to him and get to know him on a more personal level, like a lot of my friends who got to know him,” she said. “But above all else, Charlie has been a voice for our country.”
The reality TV star noted the remarkable influence of Kirk’s Turning Point USA legacy on young adults, including her brother.
“To watch my 19-year-old brother and watch all these college kids now show up and be loud and not be afraid because, at the end of the day, our lives are on the line,” she said. “2028 is coming up. And Charlie, he wants us to fight. He wants us to be loud. And he said it himself, ‘If you don’t correct evil, if you don’t speak about evil, when evil is happening, then that in itself is evil.’ So it’s my job to stand up, be loud, and really I don’t care who likes it and who doesn’t.”
Chrisley emphasized the importance of faith in Kirk and Erika’s message. “I keep saying that above all else, Charlie Kirk and his wife Erika, are Christians,” she said. “Isn’t that really the message? I think bringing Christianity back into households is the only thing that’s going to save us as a country. I know for me, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I don’t know where I would be today without it. And so watching Erika, I don’t know how she spoke the word of God after losing her husband. I mean, I was in such awe to know that she is now the leader of Turning Point. I mean, we only go up from here.”
Authorities have identified Kirk’s murder suspect as Tyler Robinson, 22. Robinson was arrested and charged with aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily harm, and two counts of obstruction of justice. A judge ordered that he be held without bail.
