Naomi Judd reportedly left her daughters, singer Wynonna Judd and actress Ashley Judd out of her will. The “Love Can Build a Bridge” singer reportedly left behind an estate worth about $25 million, and she left it all to her husband, Larry Strickland. The documents made no mention of Wynonna or Ashley, according to documents obtained by Radar Online.
“I nominate and appoint my spouse, Larry Strickland, as Executor of my estate,” the document reads, according to the outlet. Judd nominated and appointed Daniel Kris Wiatr and Strickland’s brother, Reginald Strickland, as co-executives if Strickland “ceases or fails to serve.” Wynonna, 58, was reportedly “upset” after learning about the will, especially since they performed as The Judds together for so many years. Wynonna “believes she was a major force behind her mother’s success,” a source told Radar Online.
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Strickland, who married Judd in 1989, was given “full authority and discretion” over the assets of Judd’s estate “without the approval of any court,” reports Page Six. The musician will also receive “reasonable compensation” for his services. He will also be reimbursed for “expenses, advances, and disbursements, including attorney’s and accountant’s fees” while overseeing the estate.
The will was dated Nov. 20, 2017. She was of “sound mind and disposing memory” when she signed the documents. Melissa Sitzler, a senior account manager at a Tennessee law firm called Wiatr & Associates, and Abigail Muelder were the witnesses to Judd’s signature. They agreed Judd was of “sound mind, memory, and understanding, and not under any restraint or in any respect incompetent to make a Last Will and Testament.” Wynonna and Ashley, 54, have not commented on the reports of their mother’s will.
Judd died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at her home in Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee on April 30. She was 76. Her death was announced the day before she and Wynonna were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. During the ceremony in Nashville, Wynonna and Ashley both paid tribute to their mother, showing no sign of tension between them. In fact, Wynonna was scheduled to go on a tour with her mother after the Hall of Fame ceremony. The fall tour was reworked as a tribute to Judd, with Wynonna being joined on stage by other country music stars.
Last month, Ashley told the Healing with David Kessler podcast that she and other family members are divided on how to grieve Judd. She and Wynonna have stuck together while acknowledging their different responses to their mother’s death. “We can be at the same supper table and recognize, ‘Oh, this one’s in anger; this one’s in denial,” Judd said, reports Variety. “This one’s in bargaining; this one’s in acceptance. I’m in shock right now.’ And we don’t try to control or redirect or dictate how the other one should be feeling at any particular moment.”
Ashley went on to explain that Wynonna is “in a pretty different place than I am right now. And we don’t have to be congruent in order to have compassion for each other… I had to let go of this controlling notion that yours needs to look like mine. I mean, that’s really egocentric, isn’t it?”
The actress added that she now understands she grew up with a mother who had “undiagnosed and untreated” mental illness. “There are different behavioral expressions, interactions, flights of fancy, choices that she made that I understand were an expression of the disease,” Ashley said. “And I understand that and know that she was in pain and can today understand that she was absolutely doing the best that she could, and if she could have done it differently, she would have.”
If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741-741.
