Ashley Judd: FINDING FORGIVENESS

JUST OVER A YEAR AFTER HER MOTHER’S SUICIDE, THE ACTRESS SHARES HOW SHE’S COPING — AND WHAT SHE LEARNED ABOUT PROCESSING CHILDHOOD TRAUMA

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ON April 30, 2022, a stunned Ashley Judd walked into her 76-year-old mother Naomi Judd’s Tennessee bedroom to a horrific sight. The country legend was dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Calling it “the most shattering day of my life,” the 55-year-old desperately tended to her mom, recently revealing she reassured Naomi “that all had been forgiven long ago and that she was so loved.”

Forgiveness was a long time coming. For years, Naomi — who with elder daughter Wynonna Judd performed as the multiplatinum duo The Judds — had struggled with mental illness. And while Wynonna joked that the family “put the ‘fun’ in ‘dysfunction,’” Ashley struggled. “My mom showed me a lot of herself while she was hurting,” she’s said. “And there were times when I saw my mom in a way that’s very difficult for a daughter.”