The Grammy-winning country musician Naomi Judd died last month after shooting herself, her daughter, the actor Ashley Judd, said on Thursday.
Ashley discussed the death of her 76-year-old mother in an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America.
“I will share with you that she used a weapon,” Judd said of her mother, who died on 30 April following a long battle with depression. “My mother used a firearm.”
Ashley said she understood the public would know her mother died by her own hand once an autopsy was released, but wanted to be in control of the news.
“We’re very uncomfortable sharing but understand that we are in the position [where] if we don’t say it, someone else is going to,” Ashley said.
Ashley’s sister Wynonna, also a renowned singer who formed the Judds with her mother, did not appear on ABC because she was not ready to talk about her mother’s death.
Ashley described Naomi’s last day alive. She had gone to visit her mother at her home in Nashville, Tennessee, she said, before leaving momentarily to welcome a family friend. When Ashley went to get her mother to let her know about the visitor, she said, she saw her mother had shot herself.
It was one day before Naomi and Wynonna were to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
“I have both grief and trauma from discovering her,” Ashley told her interviewer, Diane Sawyer.
She added that her mother had both resources and support in her battle with depression.
“My mother knew that she was seen and she was heard in her anguish,” she said.
Despite this, Ashley said, her mother became unable to cope.
“When we’re talking about mental illness, it’s very important to be clear and to make the distinction between our loved one and the disease,” she said. “It’s very real, and … it lies, it’s savage – you know, my mother … couldn’t hang on until she was inducted into the Hall of Fame by her peers.”
She continued: “I mean that is the level of catastrophe of what was going on inside of her … The lie that the disease told her was so convincing … that you’re not enough, that you’re not loved, that you’re not worthy. Her brain hurt, it physically hurt.”
Naomi’s death came shortly after she and Wynonna announced an arena tour. It was to have been their first in more than a decade, having only recently made a return to live performance, at the CMT Music Awards in April.
The Judds had 14 No 1 songs and five Grammy wins over nearly three decades, singing about family as well as the virtues of marriage and fidelity. Among their hits were Love Can Build a Bridge (1990), Mama He’s Crazy (1984), Why Not Me (1984), Turn It Loose (1988), Girls Night Out (1985), Rockin’ With the Rhythm of the Rain and Grandpa (both 1986).
They were at the peak of their powers when, in 1991, doctors diagnosed Naomi with hepatitis. In a 2017 interview, she recounted how her mental state declined significantly after she stopped performing.
“When I came off the tour I went into this deep, dark, absolutely terrifying hole and I couldn’t get out,” she said.
Naomi wrote a book called River of Time: My Descent Into Depression and How I Emerged with Hope.
“I spent two years on my couch,” she said.
Born Diana Ellen Judd in Ashland, Kentucky, Naomi was a nurse when she and Wynonna started singing together, blending unique harmonies with acoustic music, bluegrass and blues.
Besides her daughters, Naomi’s survivors include her husband Larry Strickland, who was a backing singer for Elvis Presley.
In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 800-273-8255 and online chat is also available. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org