Naomi Judd's Relationship With Daughter Ashley: What to Know

By Brenda Alexander

The country music world is still stunned by the death of Naomi Judd. The Grammy-winning singer died by suicide with her family attributing her death to mental illness in Tennessee on Apr 30, 2022. Her death came just a day before she and her daughter Wynonna were to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Instead, Sisters Wynonna and Ashley accepted on Naomi's behalf.

In a statement shared with The Associated Press, Ashley and Wynonna announced their mother's passing, writing, "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."

Though loving, the relationship between Ashley and Naomi was complicated at times. However, they developed a close and unbreakable bond in the end.

Ashley said her mother didn't realize how much she was loved by the country music community

The actress wishes her mother could have held on just a little longer, especially in light of the Country Music Hall of Fame induction. However, she and Wynnona said so eloquently during her memorial service: "She left country music better than she found it."

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The two spoke every day

Ashley says despite being in pain over her mother's death, she is at peace knowing the close-knit relationship they built. The mother-daughter pair spoke and/or FaceTimed daily when Ashley was not home in Kentucky.

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Naomi Judd supported Ashley when she decided to speak out against Harvey Weinstein

Unlike her mother and sister who chose music, Ashley embarked on a successful career in acting, appearing in blockbusters such as Double Jeopardy. Amid the #TimesUp Movement, Ashley was one of the famous faces who spoke about being sexually harassed by Weinstein. She told Access Hollywood that her mother told her, "Honey, go get him."

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Naomi Judd raised her daughters on welfare; something Ashley didn't truly learn until later

To support her daughters, Naomi was on public assistance while attending school to be a nurse in Kentucky until she landed a record deal with Wynnona with RCA. Ashley also wrote in her memoir that she didn't know her true roots because Naomi was not forthcoming.

"[My mother] created an origin myth for the Judds that did not match [her] reality," she wrote. "She and my sister have been quoted as saying that our family put the 'fun' in dysfunction. I wondered: Who, exactly, was having all the fun? What was I missing?"

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Ashley Judd discovered her mother on the day of her death and revealed the cause of death to the world

The mother and daughter pair lived next door to one another and Ashley visited her mother daily when she was home. On the day in question, Ashley told Diane Sawyer that she briefly left her mother's home to welcome a friend who was there to aid her mother in a hard time. Upon her return, she found Naomi. The family opted to inform the public of how Naomi died before an official autopsy before anyone else was able to do so. Ashley told Sawyer simply that her mother used a firearm in her death.

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They both spoke openly about their struggles with depression

Naomi's life has been anything but a cheerful country song. She gave birth to Wynonna on the night of her high school graduation and had difficult relationships with men, including an ex who beat and raped her when she was 22 after he broke into her apartment.

Like her mother, Ashley also battled depression and revealed in her 2011 memoir that she was sexually abused as a child and that no one in her family initially believed her when she first told them. Ashley harbored resentment toward her mother and sister as she was often left alone while they toured the world.

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