Erika Kirk (née Frantzve) once auditioned for The Amazing Race with a past partner.
“You look really handsome,” Kirk, 37, told then-boyfriend JT Massey in their 2014 Amazing Race audition tape, adjusting Massey’s v-neck shirt for the camera, before adding, “Sex sells, babe.”
After styling Massey’s wardrobe, Kirk explained why the pair would make ideal contestants on the CBS reality TV competition despite only being together for five months.
“Hi, I’m Erika Frantzve. I’m 25 years old [and] from Scottsdale, Arizona, and I currently live in Venice, California,” Erika said in the clip, which recently was resurfaced via social media.
Massey, a then-baseball player with the Colorado Rockies, further detailed the couple’s relationship origins.
“So, March 1st, we went on our first date,” he said, noting Erika initially mixed up their date plans. “I’m sitting at dinner with my dad in Arizona, like, ‘Did I mess up the date or what?’ I stand up from the table to call her, and [learn] she messed up the date.”
Massey and Erika met the next day for dinner.
“I picked her up, it was raining,” he recalled. “I picked her up at her house, and later met her mom on the first night. Exciting stuff. It was great, easy conversation.”
Erika chimed in, adding that she and Massey subsequently spent “every day since then” together.
“We would close out coffee shops and Chipotles,” she said. “We [go] hiking together, that was fun. .. We, somehow, find a way to make the best out of any situation that we’re in ‘cause we like to have fun. Life’s too short.”
Not much is known about Erika’s relationship with Massey or their breakup. She ultimately moved on with husband Charlie Kirk, who died in 2025 at age 31. After Charlie’s death, Erika took over the reins of his Turning Point USA organization and often made waves for her conservative beliefs.
“What I don’t want to happen is for young women in the city look to the government as a solution to put off having a family or a marriage,” Erika said during The New York Times’ 2025 DealBook Summit, addressing how a majority of unmarried female voters voted for new NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani. “You’re relying on the government to support you instead of being united with the husband, where you can support yourself and your husband can support you and guys can all combine together.”
Weeks later, Erika clarified her comments since she became a single working mother after Charlie’s death. (Erika and Charlie shared two young children together.)
“I didn’t ask for this. It’s, obviously, a blessing,” Erika said during a CBS News town hall last month. “I view it as a blessing [and] a duty to my husband, but I was very happy being a stay-at-home mom. There’s nothing wrong with being a mother. There’s actually [no] more beautiful and emotional and powerful ‘job title’ if you will [than] being a mother.”
She continued, “For me, I experienced what it was like living in New York and experiencing that ‘boss babe’ culture. When I met Charlie and we had our babies, I was in it. That was all hands on deck. I would take that world in a heartbeat.”
While Erika and Massey weren’t cast on The Amazing Race, she later made her reality TV debut on Bravo’s Summer House. Erika was briefly featured on a season 3 episode in 2019 when Carl Radke set her up with housemate Jordan Verroi due to their shared faith.
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