Wynonna Judd is opening up about her mother Naomi Judd’s death. In a new interview with CBS Sunday Morning, her first since her mother died by suicide on April 30 at the age of 76, Judd, who performed with Naomi as the country duo the Judds, admitted that she still feels “incredibly angry” with her mother.
Sitting down with CBS News correspondent Lee Cowan, Judd reflected on the moment she learned her mother had passed. According to the country singer, 58, she “got the call, and I went over, and I saw her and I said goodbye to her in the hospital, and I closed her eyes, and I kissed her forehead, and that was that.” Judd said the “next thing I know, I’m sitting here on the side porch, and I’m just trying to figure out what’s next.” She and her sister, Ashley Judd, announced their mother’s death in a joint statement at the time. “Today we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness,” they shared. “We are shattered. We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public.” They later revealed that their mother died of a self-inflicted firearm wound, with Ashley telling ABC’s Diane Sawyer, “That is the level of catastrophe of what was going on inside of her, because the barrier between the regard in which they held her couldn’t penetrate into her heart and the lie the disease told her was so convincing.”
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Although Judd was aware of her mother’s mental health struggles, something Naomi had been open about, she said she “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. 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.” She admitted that in the wake of her mother’s death, she has found herself “incredibly angry” with her late mother, telling Cowan when asked if the feeling of anger ever goes away, “No, I don’t think so, not for a while.”
Still reeling, Judd also shared that months after her mother’s passing, she still feels her presence. She told Cowan, “I feel her nudging me. And sometimes, I laugh. And sometimes, I say, ‘I really miss you. Why aren’t you here so we can argue?’” Judd also revealed that she and her sister are “so united right now, I think more than we’ve been so in a long time.”
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.
