Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, granted a candid interview to The New York Times in advance of the massive memorial service for her slain husband at Arizona’s State Farm Stadium Sunday.

In the sitdown with Times reporter Robert Draper, Erika Kirk that Charlie was too excited to sleep the night before his scheduled event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.

“’He got up and I could hear him eating something in the kitchen. He’d been waiting all summer to begin touring.’ The visits to college campuses, she said, ‘were like an Olympic event for him. He trained for them. He had whiteboard sessions for hours. Mock debates. He was just so excited,’” she told The Times.

“Mr. Kirk finally fell asleep sometime later, in another bed in the house,” the report continued. “Ms. Kirk heard him slip out early the next morning. She texted ‘I love you’ to him before his chartered plane took off for Provo, Utah. A staff member later told her that he had overheard Mr. Kirk proclaiming to the pilot as he disembarked, ‘Today’s going to be a great day.’”

In light of death threats against her husband, Erika Kirk told Draper that she implored Charlie to wear a bulletproof vest during his speaking engagements, and a friend even suggested he speak behind bulletproof glass. But Charlie’s answer was, “Not yet.”

Erika Kirk had planned to be with her husband in Utah, but remained in Arizona to take care of her mother, who was hospitalized at the time. That’s where she learned of Charlie’s murder.

“Ms. Kirk was sitting in her mother’s hospital room at 11:23 a.m. local time in Phoenix when she saw the number of her husband’s longtime assistant, Michael McCoy, appear on her phone. In retrospect, she said she knew the words — “He’s been shot!” — before Mr. McCoy screamed them.”

Erika Kirk revealed that she now wears a pendant of St. Michael that Charlie was wearing when he was killed. She is scheduled to speak at Sunday’s memorial service, along with President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance.

She added that she does not plan to weigh in on whether the state should seek the death penalty against suspect Tyler Robinson.

“I’ve had so many people ask, ‘Do you feel anger toward this man? Like, do you want to seek the death penalty?’ I’ll be honest. I told our lawyer, I want the government to decide this. I do not want that man’s blood on my ledger. Because when I get to heaven, and Jesus is like: ‘Uh, eye for an eye? Is that how we do it?’ And that keeps me from being in heaven, from being with Charlie?”

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