Ashley Judd Reveals How Differently She and Her Family Have Grieved the Lost of Naomi Judd

Three months after her mother’s passing, actress Ashley Judd is opening up about her grieving process and how different it has been for everyone in her family.

As Mamas Uncut previously reported, Naomi Judd, one half of the legendary country duo, The Judds, passed away on April 30. As reports revealed Naomi has long dealt with bouts of depression throughout her life.

Ashley Judd Reveals How Differently She and Her Family Have Grieved the Lost of Naomi Judd

Naomi died by suicide at the age of 76. Now, Ashley Judd is revealing how she’s been grieving the loss of her beloved mother and how different the grieving process has been for his sister, Wynonna Judd, and Naomi’s husband Larry Strickland.

While talking with grief expert David Kessler on his podcast, Ashley revealed that while her family has all processed Naomi’s death differently, they have also been very respectful of each other during this time. “One of the things that I think we have done well as a family, meaning my pop, my sister Wynonna and me, is we have really given each other the dignity and the allowance to grieve in our individual and respective ways,” Ashley admitted.

“And yet we’ve been able to completely stick together. So we can be at the same supper table and recognize, ‘Oh, this one’s in anger, this one’s in denial, this one’s in bargaining, this one’s in acceptance, I’m in shock right now.’”

Now that Naomi is gone, Ashley also talked about how her relationship with her stepfather has changed. Larry has been in Ashley and Wynonna’s lives since 1989.

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“We don’t try to control or redirect or dictate how the other one should be feeling at any particular moment. And I have had some of the most sacred and holy experiences with my pop. He, you know, my mom and pop and I are neighbors, and sister looks over the hill, and pop comes over every morning,” Ashley explained.

As she continued, she says they have quite a routine down nowadays. “I take care of myself first. I wake up and I do my readings and my writing and my meditation practice and connect with my partner. And then pop comes over and I make his coffee and his breakfast and we sit and we grieve together.”

Ashley also shared that their grief looks different day to day. “He might cry, I might cry, we might just talk. I gave him a journal one morning and now he’s got his practice of writing and I mean, it’s just those times are so holy and we may be in slightly different places and yet we’re in a community,” Ashley revealed.

And although they will always have each other’s backs, Ashley admitted she and Wynonna, who completed The Judds alongside her mother, are in “different places” right now. 

“Sister came over yesterday and spent the day with me and spent the night and we talked about mom, we talked about social issues,” she said. “She gave me a foot rub and she’s in a pretty different place than I am right now. And we don’t have to be congruent in order to have compassion for each other and I think that that’s a really important grace that family members can hopefully learn to give each other.”

But as Ashley admitted, she hasn’t always been able to deal with their differences. “I had to let go of this controlling notion that yours [grief] needs to look like mine. I mean, that’s really egocentric, isn’t it? All my feelings are valid and appropriate by virtue of being mine, and everyone else’s feelings are valid and appropriate by virtue of being theirs,” she explained.

If you or someone you know is dealing with depression or thoughts of suicide, please contact the suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.