As the shots rang out, sending world leaders diving for cover, the 27-year-old country singer was in the eye of the storm: directly beside the director of the FBI. 

Alexis Wilkins opened up to the Daily Mail about the moment her boyfriend Kash Patel, 45, forced her to hide under a table at the star-studded White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday night.

In a candid account of the evening that descended into chaos following a perceived active shooter situation, Wilkins described the 'surreal' experience of huddling on the floor while security details scrambled to secure the Washington Hilton ballroom.

'He kept telling me to get down,' she recalled of Patel. 'He was in his chair, covering me, had me on the ground. He was firmly keeping me under the table. I wasn't looking at anything, just looking down.'

As the alarm was raised at 8:35 pm, Wilkins says Patel immediately pivoted from dinner guest to protector.

While huddled on the floor, Wilkins' first thought was of her family watching the broadcast at home. 'I need to text my mom so she doesn't have a panic attack was my first thought,' she said.

Her four-word text message was direct and chilling: 'Shots fired, we're okay.'

Wilkins said her mom responded saying she felt sick – later telling her daughter on the phone that it was the 'longest minute of her life.' 

Patel and Wilkins then checked on Daily Mail reporters and other guests at the table they were seated with for the short-lived evening. 

Once the room was partially cleared, Wilkins says she saw Patel transition instantly into 'complete work mode.'

'I can see him flip into, you know, complete work mode, and he is already on his work iPhone, getting things organized,' she said. 'He was getting me safe and then getting straight to work.'

When asked about speculation that Patel was using his personal phone to field calls, Wilkins explained that both his work and personal phones are iPhones: 'I can guarantee that all of his calls were work-related that evening. That speculation was made by an angry ex-FBI agent who apparently thought that the bureau still only used Androids.'

However, the trauma of the security scare was quickly followed by what Wilkins describes as a 'sick' attempt by the New York Times to misrepresent her behavior during the crisis.

The newspaper published - and later edited an account claiming Wilkins was seen in a distraught state, holding hands with a man who was not Patel in a private holding room.

'I was only ever holding Kash's hand; anything to suggest otherwise is false. It is sick for the New York Times to have used this time after a perceived active shooting as a political tool. They will stop at nothing to push a narrative out that's damaging to people they've determined they dislike,' she told the Daily Mail.

Wilkins now wants to set the record straight, calling the reporting 'salacious' and a 'weird refusal to fully admit they were wrong.'

'The thing that's really interesting about all of this is that never happened at all,' Wilkins said firmly. 'I was never in a different holding room outside of the holding room that I was in with Kash. I was sitting there with the acting attorney general and his wife, Kristine, and never held anyone's hand.'

She continued: 'To make it about something salacious was really... talk about trauma. I thought to myself, "Are you kidding?" You don't even have time to process it, because something's coming out about you holding hands with someone.'

Wilkins challenged the accuracy of the story, noting that the door was locked to their holding room.

'You say someone's holding someone's hand in another room, you know exactly what you're implying. They have the wherewithal to know that,' she told the Daily Mail. 

A spokesperson for The New York Times stood by their reporting. 

'A Times journalist on the scene of the Correspondents' Dinner accurately reported during the breaking news events of the evening, including Ms. Wilkins' sheltering in a room while holding a security officer's hand. This reporting was published in a live blog Saturday night, and while updated for additional context to readers, was never deleted,' they stated.

The Times adjusted their copy to include that the man whose hand she was holding was a member of the Secret Service. 

The incident has highlighted what Wilkins calls the 'very real security threats' facing those in the administration and those closest to them. 

'A guy was arrested in Boston, and he directly cited a New York Times article that he read about me for the reason that he decided to send me a threat,' Wilkins said.

The article Wilkins is referring to was a piece done by the Times with the headline: 'Kash Patel's girlfriend seeks fame and fortune' – detailing her private life and relationship with the Director. 

Alden Welch Ruml, 26, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was arrested in March for reportedly sending her a threatening email, saying he would be 'happy' when her face was 'canoed by an assault rifle' and also warned, 'watch your back.'

She says there have been dozens of other threats. 

Wilkins had been provided a full-time security detail made up of FBI SWAT team members once the threats started to escalate. She says the threat levels were determined from security team assessments.

She also separately noted that the White House Correspondents Dinner proves there are credible dangers in an era of rampant political violence.  

'It's not something that you invite into your life, to have to worry about your safety, especially when I don't have a job in the administration... I'm just trying to support my significant other and live my life.'

Despite the 'conspiratorial' noise on social media, Wilkins says she is focused on processing the event with those who were actually there.

Reflecting on the redo President Trump is planning for the glamorous gala that turned into a crime scene, Wilkins made a joke to lighten the mood.

'I hope that George Santos doesn't roast me... I need to be allowed to wear the same dress again,' she laughed, referring to the expelled former congressman who was doling out fashion ratings in the dinner's aftermath.