Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, is opening up about her relationship with Vice President JD Vance following the assassination of her husband. The businesswoman, 36, appeared on the Wednesday, November 5,

The 2025 Patriot Awards at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts in Brookville, New York, will honor national heroes. Melania Trump will be named 'Patriot of the Year,' and Erika Kirk will receive the inaugural ‘Charlie Kirk Legacy Award.

“I thought, 'Wow, can I still do this?’” Slezak, 79, tells PEOPLE exclusively. The actress won six Daytime Emmys during her tenure as Victoria “Viki” Lord on One Life to Live, a role she played from 1971 until 2012 (and briefly reprised in the 2013 online revival).

The AI-generated image was a spoof of a real hug the vice president and Erika Kirk shared on stage at a Turning Point USA event.

A lip reader revealed the heartbreaking exchange between Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika, and Vice President JD Vance during her first Turning Point USA campus event following her

Slezak is best known for her iconic, Daytime Emmy Award winning role of Victoria ‘Viki’ Lord on One Life to Live, which she portrayed from 1971 until the series was canceled in 2013. Since then, she’s appeared on series including The Resident, Blue Bloods and the Hallmark Channel film Next Stop, Christmas.

Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, said this week that she wants cameras in the courtroom during proceedings for his accused killer — noting that cameras were “all over” capturing the moment when her husband was killed while speaking at Utah Valley University in September.

Erika Slezak views Ronnie’s exit not as an ending but as a chapter break — the kind that invites the show to reopen it anytime.