Studying Time: 3 minutes
Erika Kirk has been concerned in numerous controversies within the months since her husband, Charlie Kirk, was shot and killed.
And one of many strangest mini-scandals needed to do with a public show of affection.
As you could recall, Erika launched Vice President JD Vance at a current occasion on the College of Mississippi.
US Vice President JD Vance (R) greets Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow, throughout a Turning Level USA occasion on the College of Mississippi, in Oxford, Mississippi, October 29, 2025. (Photograph by JONATHAN ERNST/POOL/AFP by way of Getty Pictures)
The 2 embraced on stage, and lots of thought that the hug went on for an inappropriately very long time.
Quite a few media shops and commentators provided their two cents on the hug and the general public response to it.
And one widespread rumor claims that Erika was so upset about Whoopi Goldberg’s response that she’s now filed an eight-figure lawsuit in opposition to the View co-host.
“Erika Kirk Files a $90 Million Lawsuit Against Whoopi Goldberg: ‘She Turned an Innocent Hug Into an Adultery Scandal That Didn’t Exist,’” reads a Fb submit from a type of shady-looking pages that nonetheless receives tons of of feedback.
Erika Kirk and U.S. Vice President JD Vance embrace on the Pavilion at Ole Miss on the campus of the College of Mississippi on October 29, 2025 in Oxford, Mississippi. (Photograph by Brad Vest/Getty Pictures)
“In a move that legal scholars are already calling ’emotionally ambitious,’ Erika Kirk has reportedly filed a $90 million defamation lawsuit against The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg, accusing her of ‘turning an innocent hug into an adultery scandal that didn’t even exist — not even in an alternate timeline,’” the submit continues.
“Erika Kirk has taken the legal drama to the next level, officially filing a lawsuit against The View host Whoopi Goldberg for a whopping $110 million,” one other web page wrote.
“Kirk accuses Whoopi of ‘twisting an innocent compliment’ about her on-air outfit into a veiled admission of intellectual property infringement.”
We’re not linking to those accounts as a result of they’re the kind of AI-dependent slop factories which might be far too widespread on Fb today, and we refuse to encourage them.
Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow, speaks in the course of the public memorial service for right-wing activist Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on September 21, 2025. (Photograph by MANDEL NGAN/AFP by way of Getty Pictures)
So what’s the deal right here? Is Erika actually suing Whoop over a hug?
Nicely, as you’ve in all probability already guessed, the reply is not any. Not less than there’s no proof that Erika has filed a lawsuit, a lot much less a $90 million one.
Within the age of AI, any disingenuous opportunist can crank out a 1,000-word article claiming some kind of nonsense, get a bunch of advert income from the clicks of confused Fb customers (normally older of us), after which pull up stakes and transfer on to the following one.
It’s a revolting and more and more widespread technique, and within the years to return, it’s gonna get even more durable to separate the details from the BS.
