Ashley Judd has come to ‘understand’ her late mother’s struggle with mental illness in the months since Naomi Judd’s suicide.
The “Double Jeopardy” star said in a new podcast interview that she now knows the country singer’s decisions or behaviors were caused by the disease and not her children.
“I look back on my childhood and I realize that I grew up with a mother who had an undiagnosed and untreated mental illness,” Ashley, 54, said Tuesday on “Healing with David Kessler.”
“And there are different behaviors, interactions, fantasies, choices that she made that I understand were an expression of the disease, and I understand that and know that she was in pain and can understand today that she was doing her absolute best she would could, and if she could have done it differently, she would have.
Naomi died on April 30 at the age of 76 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after years of battling depression. The ‘Someone Like You’ actress and her sister, Wynonna Judd, initially announced that Naomi had died of ‘mental illness’.
“We are broken. We are going through deep sorrow and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her audience. We are in uncharted territory,” they said in a joint statement at the time.
“My most fervent wish for my mother is that when she passed on, hopefully she would be able to let go of any guilt or shame she had for any shortcomings she had in raising my sister and me,” Ashley told me. Kessler.
“Because certainly on my side, all is long ago forgiven, all is long ago forgiven.”
Wynonna and her mother, who formed the musical duo The Judds, would be inducted into Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame the day after Naomi’s death. Instead, Wynonna and Ashley took the stage and tearfully thanked viewers for loving their mother.
“My mom loved you so much,” Ashley told the audience with tears in her eyes, “and I’m sorry she couldn’t last until today.
“Your esteem for her and your esteem for her really penetrated her heart,” she continued, “and it was your affection for her that kept her going over the years.”
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues discussed in this story, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or text Crisis Text Line at 741741.