Ashley Judd Says She Felt Like a ‘Suspect’ in Mother Naomi Judd’s Suicide

Ashley Judd has opened up about her mother Naomi Judd’s death, saying that she felt treated like a “suspect” by law enforcement personnel. In a new column for the New York Times, Ashley called for changes to the policing and court systems that “wreak havoc on mourning families” who are working to cope with the deaths of loved ones who died by suicide. The late singer “had come to believe that her mental illness would only get worse, never better” and “took her own life,” Ashley says in her column, titled “The Right To Keep Private Pain Private.” 

She also says that her mother “felt cornered and powerless as law enforcement officers began questioning me while the last of my mother’s life was fading.” Naomi Judd – who sang in a country music duo with her eldest daughter, Wynonna, for many years – died on April 30, a day that Ashley calls the “most shattering day” of her life. She went on to write, “I wanted to be comforting her, telling her how she was about to see her daddy and younger brother as she ‘went away home,’ as we say in Appalachia. Instead, without it being indicated I had any choices about when, where and how to participate, I began a series of interviews that felt mandatory and imposed on me that drew me away from the precious end of my mother’s life. And at a time when we ourselves were trying desperately to decode what might have prompted her to take her life on that day, we each shared everything we could think of about Mom, her mental illness and its agonizing history.”

Following Naomi’s death, Wynonna and Ashley issued a joint statement, saying, “Today we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness. We are shattered. We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public. We are in unknown territory.” Notably, on the same weekend, Naomi and Wynonna were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. 

During the Sunday night induction ceremony, Wynonna and Ashley spoke about their late mother. “My momma loved you so much and she appreciated your love for her and I’m sorry that she couldn’t hang on until today,” Ashley said while fighting tears. “My heart’s broken and I feel so blessed,” Wynonna added. “At 2:20, I kissed her on the forehead and I walked away and this is the first place I’ve been. The last thing we did together as a family was with her, we all gathered around her and we said, ‘The Lord is my shepherd.’”