Ashley Judd remembered her late mother, beloved country artist Naomi Judd, during a powerful discussion in Washington, D.C. It took place nearly two years after Judd unexpectedly lost her mother, who had long faced struggles with mental health and depression. Naomi was 76.
Judd appeared at the White House on Tuesday (April 23), addressing the Biden Administration's National Strategy for Suicide Prevention. Judd noted that the two-year anniversary of Naomi’s death approaches next week, on Tuesday, April 30. Judd, who also spoke to her own experiences with mental health, said “the disease of mental illness was lying to her, and with great terror convinced her that it would never get better,” and her mother “lived most of her life with an untreated and undiagnosed mental illness that lied to her and stole from her... It stole from our family, and she deserved better.”
On her Instagram story, Judd shared a link to learn more about the newly-unveiled National Strategy for Suicide Prevention and the first Federal Action Plan. She said on another slide that she “was honored to speak with other suicide prevention advocates about the importance of the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention amidst our worsening mental health crisis.” Judd shared a clip with the link to the full discussion. Watch it here.
Judd has previously been open about her grief since losing her mother, including on an episode of All There Is with Anderson Cooper earlier this year, in an interview on Good Morning America and in a guest op-ed in the New York Times. Naomi, known and beloved as one-half of the legendary mother-daughter duo The Judds with Wynonna Judd, would have turned 78 earlier this year. Judd and her sister Wynonna announced in a statement in 2022 that they’d “lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness.” One day later, The Judds were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Naomi Judd Estate will soon honor her with a virtual exhibit displaying photos and memorabilia, including rare and never-before-seen images. The first of five installments will focus on Naomi’s artistry. It will be available beginning on May 1. Judd remembers her mother, in a press release announcing the online exhibit, as “a legend and an icon that left country music (and the world) better than she found it.”
If you or someone you know is considering suicide or is in emotional distress, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.