Ashley Judd has shone a light on mental health after she said that her mom was lost “to the disease of mental health.”
Ashley opened up about her mom, Naomi Judd’s passing on Good Morning America.
Scroll on to find out more…
Last weekend news emerged that Naomi Judd had died.
Naomi Judd, one half of Grammy-winning country music duo The Judds, unexpectedly passed away on April 30.
Her death was announced by her daughters.
In a statement, they wrote: “Today we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness.”
“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.”
They were a hugely successful group.
The Judds scored twenty top-10 hits with fifteen of them taking the number one spot.
In the aftermath of her sudden death, The Judds were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Wynonna Judd accepted the honour just one day after her mother’s death.
Speaking to the 800 people gathered in Nashville’s CMA Theater for the Country Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Wynonna said:
“I’m gonna make this fast because my heart’s broken — and I feel so blessed. I mean, it’s a very strange dynamic to be this broken and this blessed.”
It is an undeniably difficult time for the entire Judd family.
But now, the family are opening up about Naomi’s passing…
Ashley Judd, Naomi’s daughter, appeared on Good Morning America this morning where she spoke about her mom’s passing.
Speaking with Diane Sawyer, Ashley spoke about mental health, her mom’s cause of death and her final day.
Ashley began by explaining to Sawyer that she has been “sort of deputized” to speak “on behalf of the family at this early time before things about the 30th of April become public without our control.”
Stating that “there are many places to begin,” Ashley began by saying that she “would start with” the fact that her “mother knew that she was seen and she was heard in her anguish. And that she was walked home.”
“When we’re talking about mental illness, it’s very important and — to be clear, and to make the distinction between our loved one and the disease,” she said.
“It’s very real and it’s enough to, it lies. It’s savage.”
Ashley then went on to detail to Sawyer the day of her mom’s passing.
Explaining that she went on visit her mom’s house as she does most days, Ashley said: “Mom said to me, ‘Will you stay with me?’ And I said, ‘Of course I will.'”
Ashley later went to let in a friend of her mom’s who had arrived and when she “went upstairs to let her know that the friend was there,” she sadly “discovered her.”
Ashley then went on to detail her mom’s cause of death.
At the time that Ashley announced her mom’s passing, she wrote that her mom was lost to “the disease of mentall illness,” however, while talking with Sawyer she revealed more.
“She used a weapon… my mother used a firearm,” Ashley said.
Explaining that the family wanted to control the amount of information about the death, she said: “So that’s the piece of information that we are very uncomfortable sharing, but understand that we’re in a position that if we don’t say it someone else is going to.”
“She obviously was suffering. And, as such, her days up until that moment were hurtful to her.”
Ashley further said that her mom “couldn’t hang on until she was inducted into the Hall of Fame” because 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.”
As the Judd family continue to grieve Naomi’s passing, Ashley encouraged others suffering to seek help.
Our thoughts are with the Judd family during this extremely difficult time.
Rest in peace, Naomi Judd.