Reba McEntire Gets Choked up During Her ACM Awards Monologue Remembering Naomi Judd

Reba McEntire couldn’t hold back her emotions when remembering the late country music star Naomi Judd during Thursday’s Academy of Country Music Awards.

Acting as the night’s host, the “Fancy” artist, 70, reminisced on her first-ever ACM Award win while opening the show, and she got a little choked up while remembering who was there to celebrate with her at the time.

“Whoever wins tonight, I can relate to the excitement because I won it in 1995,” McEntire said, tearing up as she continued, “And my friend Naomi Judd handed me the trophy. I miss her.”

Judd died in April 2022 of suicide, just before being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. The “Love Can Build a Bridge” artist was also honored by daughter Wynonna Judd elsewhere in Thursday’s ceremony, as she reprised her and her mother’s 1984 hit “Why Not Me” during the ACM Awards’ medley of Song of the Year winners over the past six decades.

The “Songs of the Decades” performance also featured Lainey Wilson, Blake Shelton, Sugarland, Clint Black, Dan + Shay, LeAnn Rimes, Alan Jackson, Backstreet Boys, Brooks & Dunn, Brothers Osborne, Chris Stapleton, Cody Johnson, Ella Langley, Eric Church, Jelly Roll, Kelsea Ballerini, Megan Moroney, Miranda Lambert, Rascal Flatts, Shaboozey, and Zach Top.

After Naomi’s death in 2022, daughters Wynonna and Ashley Judd issued a mournful statement in tribute to their mother. “Today we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness,” the Judds’ statement read at the time. “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.”

In September of that same year, Wynonna said on CBS Sunday Mornings that she didn’t know how much her mother’s struggle with her mental health had progressed. “I did not know that she was at the place she was at when she ended it, because she had had episodes before and she got better,” she said at the time. “And that’s what I live in, is like, ‘Was there anything I should have looked for or should I have known?’ I didn’t.”

If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline​. The previous Lifeline phone number (1-800-273-8255) will always remain available.