Taya Kyle, widow of American Sniper Chris Kyle, appeared on a special episode of ABC talk show The View on Tuesday to discuss her faith and the ongoing resilience of her military family in the wake of her husband’s tragic passing in 2013.
“We almost wondered if we should have called it American Family,” Kyle said of her new book, American Wife, which was released in May. “Because it really is about the kids, it’s about Chris and their emails from him.”
“There are moments that I think are kind of funny, I mean, we try to add some levity,” Kyle added. “And what I think is most surprising is that sometimes some of the men and women are either reading it together or [listening to it together on audiotape], and it opened up a dialogue within their marriage, even if they weren’t a a veteran marriage, because I think the theme is common for all of us: it’s love.”
“Everybody has some sort of battle, and everyone is trying to find their faith in some way, and trying to find renewal in some way. “So I think there’s a common theme that’s resonating well, and to me, that’s just a blessing.”
Kyle also said it’s the “little things” that her kids say about their father that keep him alive in their household, and said if “only known” what her husband was going through during his time overseas, she “could have been so much better.”
“The stresses and the coping with stress and devastation and trying to be a good mother and a good person and a good friend and feeling almost like your insides are about to explode, but you absolutely can’t let them; it is so hard, and I have such compassion now for the work it takes to go through something really, really hard, and then come back and try to be perfect or great, or normal.”
“They live in a different world entirely,” Kyle continued. “We’re not going to go over there… this is something we can never visit, never experience.”
Kyle also discussed her work with the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation, which helps military families stay together after soldiers return home.
“The foundation is trying to help marriages because the divorce rate for military and first responder couples is over 80 percent, over 90 percent, and they’re good people. They have big hearts and they’re willing to say, ‘I’ll take on this life with you, because I love you that much.’ And then eventually they’re looking at each other like, ‘What the hell happened?'”
Kyle also called her kids “the strongest little people, and they have such faith.”
“I think that [veterans’] kids end up having a different idea about life. They end up knowing at a very early age that there is good, and there is bad in this world, that good people die, that somebody has to fight the fight, that they have to be stronger than a lot of people because… they have a family attached sort of, but they don’t.”
“And I try to always remember with them that there’s a handful of really nasty, ugly people in this world, but there is an overwhelming majority of beautiful, good people.”
Check out the full interview above.
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