Ashley Judd Recalls Final Conversation With Mom Naomi Judd Before Finding Her Dead By Suicide

Ashley Judd recalled the final conversation she had with her mother, Naomi Judd, before the country singer’s death in 2022. The actress opened up about her mother’s suicide in the Lifetime docuseries The Judd Family: Truth Be Told, sharing details about the talk they had moments before Naomi took her own life.

“On the evening of the 28th, [Mom] went to sleep and I went to sleep. When I woke up, I had a text from Mom that just said, ‘Please help,’” Ashley, 57, recalled in the docuseries, which aired on May 10 and May 11. “When I got there, Mom was very uncomfortable in her body, pacing around the kitchen and expressing that she didn’t want to be here anymore. … I put my hand on her leg and she patted me and she slowly softened and came back to herself and calmed down and shared a couple of things that I would say are private, between us, about why she chose to continue to live.”

Ashley revealed that one of the things her mother had told her had prompted her to say, “‘You don’t have to worry about me, Mom. I’m OK. I’m OK.’ And she really clocked that in a really deep way,” Ashley said.

'The Judd Family' Director Says Tackling Naomi's Death Was 'Challenging'

She said that Naomi then went upstairs. Ashley went to check on her later on, finding her dead by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“When I rounded the corner, I entered her bedroom, and I saw that she had harmed herself,” the activist remembered. “And then I spent the next whatever it was — half hour — just holding my mother and talking to her, and the first thing I said to her was, ‘It’s OK, I’ve seen how much you’ve been suffering.’ … When she died, my most earnest wish was to make sure that she was relieved and absolved of her guilt and shame.”

“I was holding her hand. I was kissing her. She was so soft. She smelled so pretty,” she said, recalling the moment she held her mother’s lifeless body.

Ashley said that she was “glad” to be there in her mother’s final moments after years of the Grammy winner openly suffering from severe depression.

“It was like this final consummation of the love in the relationship that we had transformed,” she said. “What an honor, to be born into this human life, to be chosen by her. I got to hold space, I got to bookend. And I’m just so glad I was there.”

In the documentary, Ashley also shut down rumors that she and sister Wynonna Judd were feuding over their mother’s will after her death.

“Wynonna and I are not fighting,” she said. “We’ve had disagreements, like all sisters do, but the idea that we’re in some sort of war over our mother’s estate is just false. In fact, we’ve become closer.”

Similarly, Wynonna, 60, said, “I love my sister. I will always love my sister. And we are united in grief.”

If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or considering suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).