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Fact check: What exactly did Candace Owens say about Erika Kirk on Joe Rogan's podcast and when did it air?
Executive Summary
Candace Owens did not make the Erika Kirk remarks on Joe Rogan’s podcast; the statements attributed to her about Erika Kirk were made on Owens’ own podcast in September 2025. Public records show Owens appeared on Joe Rogan’s show in 2018, but reporting and episode summaries linking the Erika Kirk comments point to Owens’ episodes published September 19–22, 2025, not to any JRE appearance [1] [2] [3].
1. Why the question arose — confusion between platforms and timing
Media coverage and social posts recycled remarks by Candace Owens about Erika Kirk, creating a mistaken association with Joe Rogan’s platform. Reports and episode summaries that surfaced in late September 2025 document Owens’ commentary about Erika Kirk on her own program, including claims that Erika was “in full control” of Charlie Kirk’s memorial; those pieces are dated September 19–22, 2025 [2] [3]. Meanwhile, database entries and background information confirm a separate Owens appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience in 2018, which is frequently cited when people search for Owens on Rogan, leading to an attribution error between two different podcasts and different years [1]. Several sources provided for this query explicitly note they contain no evidence of Owens discussing Erika Kirk on Rogan, highlighting the absence of corroboration for the claim [4] [5] [6] [7].
2. What Owens actually said and where it aired
Contemporaneous reporting and episode metadata indicate that the specific remarks about Erika Kirk — Owens’ complaint about not being invited to Charlie Kirk’s memorial and her statement that Erika Kirk was “in full control” — were made on Candace Owens’ own podcast episodes released around September 19–22, 2025 [2] [3]. The episode summaries and news articles describe Owens’ comments as part of a broader rant about Turning Point USA’s internal turmoil and leaked texts involving Charlie Kirk, with direct linkage to Owens’ program rather than to any Joe Rogan Experience installment [8] [3]. These sources therefore place both the content and the broadcast date within Owens’ own production schedule in September 2025, making her podcast the primary origin of the contested quote [2] [3].
3. What the Joe Rogan connection actually shows
Records confirm Candace Owens appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience in 2018, which remains the most visible Rogan-Owens appearance in archival listings and episode indexes [1]. That 2018 JRE episode contains no documented references to Erika Kirk in the contemporary summaries and does not match the timeline for the September 2025 controversy. Multiple supplied sources reviewed for this inquiry explicitly say they do not contain any Joe Rogan–sourced quote about Erika Kirk, reinforcing that there is no verified Joe Rogan episode airing in 2025 that included Owens’ Erika Kirk commentary [4] [5] [6] [7].
4. Why some outlets and posts conflated sources — motives and context
The conflation between platforms appears driven by three forces: first, searchability and prominence of Joe Rogan’s archive leads users to assume high-profile comments originate there; second, rapid social sharing in late September 2025 propagated Owens’ remarks without careful attribution, and third, partisan amplification by interested actors seeking to credit or discredit Owens and Turning Point USA intensified the error [8] [2]. Reporting that documents Owens’ own podcast makes clear she was addressing internal Turning Point controversies and her relationship to the Kirk family and memorial arrangements, a context that partisan actors on both sides exploited to frame the remarks as either defensible internal critique or public attack [8] [2]. The available sources identify these dynamics without endorsing any side’s framing [8] [2].
5. Bottom line and recommended verification steps
The evidence shows the Erika Kirk remarks were made by Candace Owens on her own podcast and aired in mid–late September 2025, not on Joe Rogan’s show; the JRE appearance by Owens in 2018 is a separate event and does not contain those comments [1] [2] [3]. For definitive verification, consult primary episode pages and timestamps for Owens’ podcasts dated September 19–22, 2025, and cross-check JRE episode archives for 2018 to confirm content; the supplied contemporary reporting is consistent on chronology and attribution [2] [3] [1]. Given the documented pattern of misattribution, treat social posts linking Owens’ Erika Kirk comments to Joe Rogan as unverified until matched to original episode transcripts or official upload metadata [4] [5].