In April of 2022, The Judds announced they'd be hitting the road for the first time in over a
decade. Sadly, Naomi's tragic death later that month canceled any future plans for
a reunion. To learn more about Naomi Judd's life before her passing, keep watching.
Naomi Judd was always an open book when it came to her mental health struggles. In 2016,
she even wrote a book about them, titled River of Time: My Descent into Depression and How I Emerged
with Hope. In addition to offering encouragement and hope to others by sharing her experiences,
Judd helped raise money for nonprofits that focus on raising mental health awareness
and providing aid to those struggling with mental illness. In 2020, Judd participated
in an online meet-and-greet fundraiser for the National Alliance on Mental Illness Tennessee.
For Mental Illness Awareness Week in 2018, Judd partnered with a physician to pen a
letter advocating for further research into why people commit suicide. It referenced the suicides
of Travel Channel star Anthony Bourdain and designer Kate Spade. Judd's letter read in part:
"No amount of fame or fortune can protect people from the despair
[that] can lead some of us to take our own lives."
In a 2018 interview with The Detroit News, Judd revealed that a few celebs had reached
out to her to talk about their own experiences with suicidal depression. Judd told the outlet:
"Of course, I did whatever I could to counsel and encourage them,
and I would never out them. But I was always hoping that they would come out themselves.
Because we have to reduce the stigma, we have to let people know, it's a disease of the brain."
In a 2020 interview with Country Music Success Stories,
Naomi Judd spoke about the adversity she's faced throughout her life, saying,
"I've been through an alphabet of tragedies and trials, and I'm still here."
Those trials included being raped while she was in high school. To make matters worse,
the Kentucky native was forced to quit school and was shunned by
her community. Judd ended up getting married to her first husband, Michael Ciminella,
and moving to California. The couple eventually divorced, and Judd began dating a man who was
physically abusive. After the man assaulted and raped her, the young mom decided to move
back to Kentucky, where she and her daughters initially lived in a cabin with no heat.
In her book, River of Descent, Judd also revealed that an uncle molested her when she was a child.
She didn't tell any family members about the incident. Judd told Good Morning America in 2016:
"In a way, I had to parent myself."
In 2017, Naomi Judd's youngest daughter, actress Ashley Judd, helped jumpstart the Me Too movement
when she joined a group of women who spoke to The New York Times about the sexual harassment
and abuse that they allegedly suffered at the hands of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
According to Naomi, Ashley consulted with her before sharing her story.
Naomi recalled during a 2018 appearance on Fox News Radio:
"She said, 'Mama, I need your opinion.' She held my hand, and she said,
'I'm really thinking about going public by telling people about Harvey Weinstein.'"
According to Ashley, her mother then told her:
"Go get 'em."
According to Naomi, it was her own experience with sexual harassment that inspired Ashley to
speak out. When Ashley was a child, one of Naomi's bosses fired her because she refused his advances.
Ashley and Naomi shared such a strong bond that they lived next to each other on a farm in
Tennessee,and Naomi viewed her daughter as a true inspiration. Naomi told Access Hollywood in 2017:
"I'm just like Ashley; I feel so fierce, and I'm so bold about helping other people."
Living near her daughters turned out to be a real blessing for Naomi Judd in 2021 after Ashley Judd
suffered a horrific injury while filming in the Congo. A fall left her leg shattered,
and she was unable to walk for nearly six months, according to a post on her Instagram
page. As Ashley recovered at home after her hospital stay, Naomi kept fans updated on
how her daughter was doing. The singer said in a July 2021 appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show:
"She could have died. She's surviving. She's very courageous."
That March, Naomi appeared on Watch What Happens Live and revealed how a pre-fame
career was helping her be an exceptionally capable caretaker. Naomi told host Andy Cohen:
"I'm going to go up and take [Ashley's] stitches out when
we're done because I used to be a nurse before I became a singer."
Naomi's career-derailing diagnosis of the life-threatening hepatitis C is connected to her
old nursing job — she contracted the disease from a needle at work. Naomi told ET that her oldest
daughter, Wynonna Judd, was also helping Ashley out during her long road to recovery, and Wynonna
even shampooed her bedridden little sister's hair. The sisterly love made Naomi proud. Naomi told ET:
"They're my role models. Don't tell 'em I said that!"
Naomi Judd wasn't just a Grammy-winning musician;
she also dabbled in acting. Judd actually landed her first role before her music career took off,
playing the "Girl on Bus" in the 1979 movie More American Graffiti. However,
most of her acting gigs were on TV, including a small part on the series Touched by an Angel.
Her final role was in the 2021 Lifetime movie V.C. Andrews' Ruby, which is set
in New Orleans and the bayou. In an interview with ET, Naomi had this to say about her role:
"I get to play a shaman, so this is new territory for me,
the superstition, the voodoo. I had to learn about it, and it was a blast."
In an interview with Today, she described a scene that called for her character to perform an
exorcism and confirmed that her daughter, Ashley Judd, helped her prep for the role
by running lines with her. However, Naomi said that she wouldn't allow her daughters
to discuss their showbiz jobs when they came over for dinner. The singer told Today:
"I kind of have to stop and say, 'Nope. Just tell me, do you want dessert,
do you want me to rub your feet?' Yeah, home is the most important thing for us."
In a 2021 appearance on Watch What Happens Live, Naomi revealed that she loves acting, but added,
"It's so much more important that you know how to act in real life."
If you've read Naomi Judd's 1993 memoir Love Can Build a Bridge,
you know that her life is the stuff that Hollywood scripts are made of:
There's drama, tragedy, familial tension, and a rags-to-riches rise that culminates in the
creation of one heck of a soundtrack. So it shouldn't come as much of a shock that a major
network was planning on bringing The Judds' story to the small screen as part of a scripted series.
According to a 2020 Deadline report, Naomi and Wynonna Judd had the honor of being the artists
chosen as the focus of the potential premiere season of the Fox anthology Icon, which would
tell the true stories behind some of the music industry's biggest stars. The mother-daughter
team were executive producing the series, and after Naomi's heartbreaking death, Deadline
reported that she had been working closely with showrunner Adam Milch to make sure that her story
got told to her satisfaction. As of May 2022, the project's future remains up in the air.
In June 2021, Naomi Judd was honored for her contributions to music by being
inducted into the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame. Naomi said in a press release,
"It's always gratifying when someone acknowledges your best efforts. I love
expressing my deepest feelings as I did in writing 'Love Can Build a Bridge.'"
While The Judds won five Grammy awards and had 14 Billboard Hot Country chart toppers,
"Love Can Build a Bridge" was more meaningful to Naomi than many of their other big hits.
Judd told Sounds Like Nashville in 2017,
"That's one of the most intricate songs I've ever written."
Judd went on to add that she penned the lyrics about unity and compassion after
seeing a homeless man sleeping outside in the cold. Judd told Sounds Like Nashville:
"It literally came out fast for me. I'd never written a song that effortlessly."
Naomi also wrote the song "Change of Heart." In a 2021 appearance on Country Music Success Stories,
she recalled how a teenage Wynonna Judd made a last-minute decision to perform the future
No. 1 hit during their live audition for RCA. Naomi had finished the song just the night before,
and she feared that they wouldn't remember the lyrics, but Wynonna killed it and sealed the deal.
Even after she left The Judds, Naomi continued writing songs. In 1992 she helped Wynonna launch
her solo career by co-writing one of her hit singles, "My Strongest Weakness."
After Betty White died in 2021, Naomi Judd paid tribute to the beloved television icon
by reminiscing about her own experiences with The Golden Girls star. The singer told CMT:
"She may have looked like she'd just come from a bridge party,
but then she'd crack a joke with sexual innuendo. She was one of my role models."
Judd wasn't lying about looking up to the good-natured actor with a wicked
sense of humor. In a 2013 appearance on Today,
she revealed that her performance in the Hallmark film Nearlyweds was inspired by White.
According to CMT, Judd said that she met White's late spouse, Alan Ludden,
when she competed on the game show Password in 1973. In Love Can Build
a Bridge, Judd recalled how she made regular appearances on quiz shows back then, but wrote,
"[I] lasted only three days on 'Password,' because an inebriated Peter Lawford became distracted
and more interested in squeezing my knee than playing the game."
Judd and White bonded through their animal advocacy,
and they both worked with the American Humane organization. After Judd's death,
the nonprofit's president praised her dedication to helping her furry friends, writing in part,
"She was a fearless champion for animal and veteran rights and walked the halls
of Congress with us to secure language in the 2016 Defense Authorization Act to help bring
our brave Military Working Dogs back home to U.S. soil where they belong."
Dolly Parton and Naomi Judd might have been competing for the same fans at one point in time,
but Parton had nothing but love for her fellow country music icon
when she paid tribute to Judd on Instagram. After learning of her friend's death, Parton wrote,
"We were very similar. We were the same age and both Capricorns. We loved big hair,
makeup and music."
Judd and Parton also shared a penchant for being excellent storytellers. In 2021,
Judd regaled Watch What Happens Live host Andy Cohen with a cheeky tale about the time she saw
Parton all dressed down like a cowboy's dreams. That is to say, Parton didn't have a stitch on.
The two women were at the Grand Ole Opry, in the dressing room, when Judd apparently
saw some body art on Parton where the sun doesn't shine. Judd teased to the host:
"She might have a butterfly tattoo."
She also recalled a humorous Dollyism that her pal shared with her the last time they met:
"[W]ell, if you're like me, the older you get the less makeup, but the more underwear you wear."
Judd mentioned Parton again in one of her last interviews at the 2022
CMT Awards, joking to ET that Parton was to blame for her long red carpet absence.
"Nashville ran out of rhinestones. That damn Dolly Parton took
all of them. I finally found some." Naomi Judd and Wynonna Judd's relationship
was rocky at times. In a 2016 Good Morning America interview, Naomi acknowledged that
she'd made a lot of mistakes as a mother, but while she had admitted as much to Wynonna,
they weren't on speaking terms at the time. Their falling out happened after
they reunited for a 2010 tour. Naomi confessed on Good Morning America:
"I love her, but there are just times we need a break from each other."
But by 2017, the mother and daughter were getting along well enough that they agreed
to perform together at a Kenny Rogers farewell concert. Fans who yearned for The Judds' good
ol' days got another treat when Naomi and Wynonna took the stage at the CMT Awards in
April 2022 for their first television performance together in two decades.
Sadly, the family reunion would be the last time they shared the stage together.
Ahead of the show, Naomi told CBS Miami that she was looking forward to seeing her fans.
"I love them so much. That's, to me, better than winning a Grammy or anything."
She and Wynonna wowed the crowd with an emotional performance of "Love Can Build a Bridge,"
complete with a choir. In her last red carpet appearance at the event,
Naomi spoke about her relationship with Wynonna, telling ET,
"If we can get along, anybody can."
When Naomi Judd appeared on Watch What Happens Live in March 2021, host Andy
Cohen asked her how she felt about The Judds' absence from the Country Music Hall of Fame,
and she told him that she wasn't bitter about the lack of recognition at all. Naomi told Cohen:
"The awards are very strange for me because I so appreciate when all of my buddies get to get
awards, and I haven't really thought that much about if they're going to give me anything."
While The Judds weren't inductees at the time, the Country Music Hall of Fame and
Museum had created an exhibit to honor them in 2018. It included meaningful memorabilia like
a prized heirloom quilt, some of the singers' costumes, and their original lyric scribblings.
And mere months after Naomi spoke to Cohen about the seeming Hall of Fame snub, it was announced
that she and Wynonna Judd were on its list of 2021 inductees. Naomi told ET of the honor:
"I'm a 10 on the one to 10 scale."
As for Wynonna, she said she agreed with the fans
who told her that Naomi's recognition was long overdue, telling People:
"My mother, to me, is the queen of my parade — and it's time to celebrate her."
Heartbreakingly, Naomi died the day before The Judds' induction ceremony
was scheduled to take place on May 1, 2022. The year 2022 looked like it was going to be big
for Naomi Judd and Wynonna Judd. While still basking in the glow of their CMT
performance and the announcement about their induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame,
The Judds were preparing for another farewell tour that was scheduled to begin on September 30, 2022.
Their 2010 "Last Encore" tour was supposed to be it for Naomi and Wynonna,
and tensions became so high between them that they
stopped speaking to each other after it was over. Naomi revealed to the Las Vegas Sun:
"There was a period of estrangement, and I didn't want to lose her."
The mother and daughter would build a bridge and reunite again for their 2015 Las Vegas residency.
Wynonna explained that Naomi's sometimes domineering attitude and lack of a filter
were partly to blame for their contentious relationship, but they seemed excited
about getting back on the road together in 2022. Naomi told Billboard in April 2022:
"I'm chompin' at the bit to belt out our hits and reconnect with [our fans] once again.
The cherry on top is singing with my beloved, wild and extremely talented daughter."
Sadly, fans won't get to see Naomi on stage in all her sequined glory again,
but she did print her own tour T-shirts. Naomi told ET:
The one that I made says, 'The Judds' final tour.'"
While still reeling from her mother's death one day earlier, Wynonna Judd attended The Judds'
Country Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The organization's CEO said in a statement to ET:
"Her family has asked that we continue with
The Judds' official Hall of Fame induction on Sunday. We will do so,
with heavy hearts and weighted minds. Naomi and daughter Wynonna's music will endure."
Naomi Judd's absence cast a somber mood over the event,
and her two daughters were tearful when they took to the stage to pay tribute to the
beloved icon whose voice and words touched the hearts of so many. Ashley Judd told the crowd:
"My mama loved you so much ... and I'm sorry that she couldn't hang on until today."
As for Wynonna, even through her pain, she managed to make a wisecrack about her mom's extroverted,
larger-than-life personality, saying,
"I didn't prepare anything tonight because I knew mom would probably
talk the most [...] It's a very strange dynamic, to be this broken and this blessed."
In addition to leaving her mark on the music world, Naomi will be remembered for her mental
health advocacy and how hard she worked to erase the stigma around depression.
In a 2017 essay for NBC News, she pointed out just how common mental illness is, writing,
"And there's power in numbers: it means that there are other people. You're not alone."
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please contact the
Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness
helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.