On Thursday, Ashley Judd, the younger daughter of celebrity musician Naomi Judd, revealed the cause of her mother’s death in a new interview. She said that the 75-year old county music icon had died due to a self-inflicted wound, using a firearm. Naomi Judd had died on April 30 but the cause was revealed today as the family wished to control the flow of information before the result of an autopsy was released.
Appearing on Good Morning America, Ashley told Diane Sawyer that her mother “used a weapon.” She also said that although the family was uncomfortable sharing the information that she used a firearm, they realized that if they didn’t mention it, someone else would.
She also spoke about the mental illness her mother had suffered from and said that it was “important to be clear and to make the decision between our loved one and the disease.” She called mental illness “real.” She said that the disease lied and it was “savage.”
She also commented on the fact that her mother could not face the disease even up to the time she would have been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. She spoke of the regard (in which they held her mother by inducting her into the Country Music Hall of Fame) “couldn’t penetrate into her heart” and she was convinced by her disease to take her own life.
Ashley Judd also spoke of the horrific final day of the music icon Naomi Judd calling it a mixed day. She said that she had visited her mother in Tennessee, as was her habit when she was home.
Naomi Judd asked her, “Will you stay with me?” Ashley replied, “Of course I will”
Ashley went upstairs to tell her mother that her good friend was there at their home. Instead she discovered her mother dead, from a self-inflicted wound with a firearm. Ashley said that she had “both grief and trauma from discovering her.” She encouraged people to reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (800-273-8255) if they required help.
The next day after her death, the mother and daughter duo (Naomi and Wynonna Judd) were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Wynonna spoke of her heartbreak as well as being blessed. She also said that she would “continue to sing, because that’s what we do.”
R.I.P. Naomi Judd
