Ashley Judd Opened Up About How She And Her Family Members Processed Their Grief After Naomi's Death

Updated on July 27, 2022 11:58 AM by Dhinesh

Ashley Judd, 54, is opening up for the first time about how she and her family members have processed their grief since the sudden death of her mother, Naomi Judd, in April.

In an interview with grief expert David Kessler that premiered Tuesday on his Healing with David Kessler podcast, Ashley Judd said in detail how she and her family have adjusted to life without their matriarch, who died by suicide at age 76 on April 30.

Judd Family sticks together!

Judd told Kessler, "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."

Judd added, "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 danger, this one's in denial, this one's in bargaining, this one's in acceptance, I'm in shock right now.'"

Ashley's new routine:

Ashley also opened up about the new routines she's developed, both on her own and with her stepfather Larry Strickland, who married Naomi in 1989.

The star said, referring to Strickland and sister Wynonna, "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."

She continued, "I take care of myself first. I wake up and 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."

She added, "And that looks like different things on different mornings, 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 community."

As for her sister Wynonna Judd, who sang in the country music duo The Judds with Naomi, Judd said they are in a "different place." She said, "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 continued, "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."

Ashley added, "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, and I don't need to add anything or take anything away from another person's experience."

The actress and her sister announced their mom's death in an emotional statement on April 30 that reads, "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."

The next day, The Judds were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and a tearful Wynonna accepted the honor onstage at Nashville's CMA Theater. She said during the ceremony, "Though my heart's broken, I will continue to sing because that's what we do."

Wynonna has since said she would continue with the planned The Judds: The Final Tour without her mother to honor the legacy they built together.

An emotional Wynonna said during CMT's Naomi Judd: A River of Time memorial special in May, "I've made a decision, and I thought I'd share it on national television that, after a lot of thought, I'm gonna have to honor her and do this tour."

Wynonna added, "The show must go on, as hard as it may be, and we will show up together, and you will carry me as you've carried me for 38 years. So we will continue this spectacle. That's what she would want, right?"