The Judds‘ Naomi Judd passed away on April 30 at the age of 76. Her daughters, Wynonna and Ashley, shared the news of her death in a heartbreaking statement:
“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.”
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Naomi passed away the day before she and Wynonna were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame as The Judds. The ceremony continued, per her family’s wishes, and Wynonna and Ashely attended.
Wynonna gave a short speech, during which she said, “I’m gonna make this fast because my heart’s broken. And I feel so blessed. And it’s a very strange dynamic to be this broken and this blessed.”
After the ceremony, Ashley shared a post about her mother’s death and The Judds’ induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. She said:
“Your outpouring is reaching me. Thank you for every thought, prayer, message, text, email, post, expression. We each are alone and we are in fellowship, broken and held, protected from nothing and sustained in everything. It’s the beginning of an old story, life and death, loss and life. Be free, my beautiful mother. Be free.”
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A few days before Mother’s Day, USA Today published an op-ed Ashley wrote about her mother:
“This Sunday is abruptly, shockingly, my first Mother’s Day without my mama,” Ashley wrote. “She died just hours before her peers at the Country Music Hall of Fame could demonstrate to her how much they esteem her. She died just days before my sister and I could show her again how much we love and honor her.”
Ashley spoke about how it was “family tradition” for her to give Naomi a box of old-fashioned candy on Mother’s Day. “We were supposed to have sweet delight in each others’ easy presence. Instead, I am unmoored,” she said.
Ashley Judd is remembering her mother and thanking the public for its “outpouring” of support in the wake of Naomi Judd’s death https://t.co/F9hRW2LBbH
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) May 4, 2022
Wynonna chose to remember Naomi on Mother’s Day by sharing an old photo of the two of them with Ashley. She simply captioned it, “I miss her.“
Her post received lots of love from her friends and fans. The comments section was full of hearts and expressions of sympathy.
You can see Wynonna’s post below. Our prayers go out to her, Ashley, and all of Naomi’s loved ones during this sad time.