Ashley Judd delivered critically-praised silver screen performances in the early '90s,
but her red-hot film career cooled considerably thereafter. And behind the scenes, she was quietly
enduring a difficult life. From devastating childhood circumstances to her allegations
against a now-disgraced Hollywood producer, these are the tragic details about Ashley Judd.
The daughter of legendary country singer Naomi Judd, Ashley experienced a childhood
rife with challenges that would follow her for the rest of her life.
In 2014, a National Enquirer report claimed that Ashley and her half-sister,
singer Wynonna Judd, were embroiled in a messy legal dispute when the actress
was reportedly awarded custody of Wynonna's daughter, Grace, after she accused her mom of…
"Verbal abuse, pill-popping and boozing."
In the midst of this family drama, ABC News reported that Ashley had also filed
a police report in 2013, after an auto mechanic found a wireless GPS
tracking device hidden in her Mini Cooper. According to the report, detectives noted,
"[Ashley] believed Wynonna had placed or had someone else place the device on her vehicle."
Ashley later issued a since-deleted statement on her website, declaring,
"The issue at hand is the illegal violation of my privacy in that a tracking device was
secretly and unlawfully placed on my vehicle. For my safety and that of everyone around me,
I naturally filed a police report, as any citizen would and should."
Judd is both an assault
survivor and a staunch pro-choice activist. During a panel for the Women in the World Summit in 2019,
she opened up about both issues, while discussing legislation that had recently been passed in the
state of Georgia which would ban abortions if a fetal heartbeat is detected - something
that can occur before a woman even realizes that she is pregnant. The bill was, quote,
"permanently blocked" in July 2020, when a judge determined it violated the U.S. Constitution.
Revealing that an assault once led her to becoming pregnant, Judd shared,
"I'm a three-time rape survivor. And one of the times I was raped there was conception.
And I'm very thankful I was able to access safe and legal abortion."
As Judd explained, the perpetrator lived in Kentucky,
while her legal residence at that time was in Tennessee. If a child had been born,
the man who assaulted her would have had paternity rights in both states.
In 2001, Judd married three-time
Indy 500 racing driver Dario Franchitti. But after more than a decade of marriage,
the couple made a shocking announcement in 2013, saying in a statement via People magazine,
"We have mutually decided to end our marriage. We'll always be family and continue to cherish
our relationship based on the special love, integrity, and respect we have always enjoyed."
Less than a year after their separation, Judd demonstrated her loyalty when Franchitti broke
his ankle in a horrific crash during the Grand Prix of Houston, per UPI.
Rushing to be by his side, Judd thanked her Twitter followers for their prayers, writing,
"I have only clothes on my back & the dogs but that's all that we need & we are on our way."
The following year, Judd opened up about her
ex-husband in an interview with Ladies' Home Journal, sharing,
"He'll always be my loved one. […] What we're showing them now is we're human,
we're family, and this is what family looks like."
Judd has been candid
about her lifelong struggle with mental health. Recalling in her
memoir All That Is Bitter & Sweet that she first experienced depression as a child, she added,
"My journey with the disease of depression […] progressed
as I grew older and many times nearly killed me."
"You know we all have really deep needs for connection, belonging, purpose, safety."
One way she learned to help combat this mental illness was with the help of Shug,
whom she called her "psychological support dog." Judd was accompanied by Shug during an
interview with Nightline, and admitted that even though she was able to function without the dog,
having her animals around made life better.
But in 2017, Judd broke the news to People that Shug had passed away. She
spoke about her dog's death at the old age of 17, later telling The Christian Post,
"Dogs practice presence. They love us exactly as we are. Sometimes, that's all we need;
just sitting with someone and letting our empathy flow is the greatest helpfulness."
Throughout her life,
Judd has required more than her dog to face her battle with depression. And in 2005,
the actress entered a treatment center in Texas to confront issues of isolation,
codependency, and depression. She told Glamour the following year,
"I needed help. […] I was in so much pain."
At an earlier time, while she was visiting her sister Wynonna at the facility where
the singer was receiving treatment for food addiction, Ashley was approached by counselors
who advised her that she and her sister were no doubt experiencing similar issues
due to the trauma they both experienced during childhood. Ashley remembered,
"They said, 'No one ever does an intervention on people like you.
You look too good. You're too smart and together. But you [and Wynonna] come from the same family,
so you come from the same wound.' No one had validated my pain before."
According to Ashley, her treatment was a success. She said,
"I was unhappy, and now I'm happy. Now, even when I'm having a rough day,
it's better than my best day before treatment."
In March 2013,
a Fox News report quoted an anonymous insider who claimed that Ashley Judd was planning on mounting
a 2014 run for the U.S. Senate. According to the source, Judd was mulling the notion of running
as a Democrat to challenge longtime incumbent Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. The insider alleged,
"At least in Ashley's mind, it is happening. She has devoted herself to many important causes and
stepped away from the Hollywood spotlight so this seems like the logical next step."
"Favorite thing about working in Hollywood. Leaving."
But less than a month later, the wheels fell off Judd's campaign before it even
started when she was unable to gain support from the state's Democratic establishment.
According to HuffPost, Kentucky Democratic bigwigs believed Judd was, quote,
"too Hollywood," and critics even managed to crank out a satirical ad against her.
"Someone from out of state, who understands us
hillbillies. I don't know a lot of hillbillies who golf. Hillbillies, hillbillies, hillbillies."
Judd ultimately declared in a statement, via USA Today,
"After serious and thorough contemplation,
I realize that my responsibilities and energy at this time need to be focused on my family.
Regretfully, I am currently unable to consider a campaign for the Senate."
Judd is a big fan of college
basketball, and the Kentucky native was deeply engaged while watching the 2015
South Eastern Conference championship game between Arkansas and Kentucky. At one point, she shared
her opinion in a since-deleted tweet claiming that Arkansas was, quote, "playing dirty." As
The Hollywood Reporter pointed out, that caused an online backlash, as ticked off Arkansas fans
began attacking her viciously on social media. It was all nasty enough that it inspired Judd to post
an essay for Mic. Admitting she'd been the target of ugly social media attacks before, she wrote,
"This particular tsunami of gender-based violence
and misogyny flooding my Twitter feed was overwhelming. […] Online harassers
use the slightest excuse [or no excuse at all] to dismember our personhood.
My tweet was simply the convenient delivery system for a rage toward women that lurks perpetually."
"The amount of gender violence that I experience is absolutely extraordinary."
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Judd's decision to speak out against her
haters unfortunately sparked yet another round of social media vitriol against her.
At some point in the early 2010s,
fans noticed that Judd looked, well, different than she had before. Radar
Online contacted a plastic surgeon to the stars, who offered his opinion that
the movie star may have reportedly received, quote, "a good dose of Botox in her forehead"
along with filler in her cheeks. But a rep for Judd blasted the speculation, telling E! News,
"Ashley has been battling an ongoing, serious sinus infection and flu. Therefore,
Ashley has been on a heavy dose of medication to overcome it
so she could get on a plane and travel to Toronto and New York to fulfill her
commitment of completing four consecutive days of press to promote her new show Missing."
"They were talking about the same woman, the same appearance, the same day, looking the same way.
And some said she looks bad, she's had work, she looks too good, she's clearly had work."
Judd herself fired back in a lengthy essay she wrote for The Daily Beast.
And the reason she chose to comment on the hearsay about her appearance at all,
was because of its systemic nature. She explained,
"The conversation was pointedly nasty,
gendered, and misogynistic and embodies what all girls and women in our culture,
to a greater or lesser degree, endure every day, in ways both outrageous and subtle."
Judd also slammed the media for its role in perpetuating the bias.
"We're gonna burn down the patriarchy and build a
more equitable and safe and just society for everybody."
During a 2015 interview with Variety,
Judd became one of the first women to speak out against the man who would later be named as
movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. At the time, she claimed of the unnamed Hollywood vet,
"I was sexually harassed by one of our industry's most famous, admired-slash-reviled bosses."
Recounting a situation that occurred with the producer while she was making the 1997 thriller,
Kiss the Girls, the actress noted that similar incidents had happened to several other women
in the industry. After accepting an invitation to talk business in his hotel room, she claimed,
"[He asked] 'Will you watch me take a shower?' […] And then I got out of
there. And by the way, I've never been offered a movie by that studio. Ever."
"Good job, kid, you got out of there. Well done."
That predator was unmasked two years later in journalist Ronan Farrow's blockbuster exposé for
The New Yorker, in which multiple women detailed their own allegations of being harassed and,
in some cases, assaulted by Weinstein. Judd was not among the women to speak
out in Farrow's article, but she subsequently confirmed that it was
indeed Weinstein she had previously referenced to Variety. She told the New York Times,
"Women have been talking about Harvey amongst ourselves for a long time,
and it's simply beyond time to have the conversation publicly."
She would become one of the first of at least 100 women,
including dozens of Hollywood actresses, to publicly accuse Weinstein of misconduct.
By coming forward about Weinstein,
Judd also became one of the faces of the "Me Too" movement. And during a 2018 panel discussion,
Judd opened up about the systemic harassment she'd experienced throughout her Hollywood career.
Per Entertainment Weekly, Judd recalled of one of her very first auditions,
"[It] yielded a screen test and I was asked to take my shirt off."
According to Judd, she was in competition for the
role with another actress, but refused the request. She added,
"I said, that isn't about our acting,
that's about evaluating a pair of breasts. And the answer was not 'no' but 'hell no.'"
In the wake of Judd's accusations
against Weinstein, director Peter Jackson added another alleged wrinkle by offering evidence
that Judd's refusal to succumb to Weinstein's advances came at a high cost to her career.
"He had a reputation. Let's put it that way. He just really had a reputation."
When casting his blockbuster The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jackson claimed to Stuff that
he had been warned not to hire Judd and fellow actress Mira Sorvino, whose alleged
run-in with Weinstein was shockingly similar to what Judd had experienced. Jackson said,
"I recall Miramax telling us they were a nightmare to work with and we should avoid
them at all costs. […] In hindsight […] I now suspect we were fed false information about both
of these talented women - and as a direct result their names were removed from our casting list."
Jackson's revelation confirmed Judd's belief that Weinstein had deliberately attempted
to crush her career in retaliation for her refusal to sleep with him.
Armed with this evidence, she took Weinstein to court.
"Make strong female friendships. Have strong female to female alliances."
In 2018, Judd launched a
lawsuit against Weinstein, alleging defamation and harassment. At the heart of the suit was Judd's
claim that she was in discussions for what could have been a career-making role in The Lord of the
Rings trilogy, before Weinstein badmouthed her to Peter Jackson. Judd told ABC News,
"I lost career opportunity. I lost money. I lost status and prestige and power in my
career as a direct result of having been […] harassed and rebuffing the […] harassment."
Early the following year, BBC News reported that a judge dismissed Judd's harassment claims on a
technicality: the law cited in the suit - which had recently been altered to include
producers and directors - was not retroactive and therefore was not relevant to her claims. But the
judge's ruling did permit Judd to proceed with her defamation claim. An appeals court then reversed
this initial decision in July 2020, according to the Associated Press, ruling that Weinstein
held power over Judd's career, thus giving her the green light to pursue her harassment claim.
By that time, Weinstein was already several months into serving a 23-year prison sentence, after
being found guilty of rape and sexual assault. While she admits she'll never forgive Weinstein,
after digging deep into her faith in God, Judd told ABC News that she would say to Weinstein now:
"I love you, and I understand that you are sick and suffering.
And there is help for a guy like you, too."
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