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Wynonna Judd Thought She Would ‘Die of a Broken Heart’ After Mom Naomi Judd’s Suicide
Wynonna Judd opened up about mom Naomi Judd’s death in the new Hulu documentary It’s All Country, describing the pain she felt following her mom’s suicide.
“When mom died, I felt like I was dying. Every single day. Every breath was heavy and I felt like I couldn’t get a deep enough breath,” Wynonna, 60, told host Luke Bryan during episode 3 of the docuseries, which premiered on the streamer on Friday, November 15. “You literally feel like I don’t know if I’m gonna make it or not. I thought I was going to die of a broken heart. I literally thought, Luke, that some days when I woke up I couldn’t get out of bed. This was so heavy.”
The “Mama He’s Crazy” singer added, “I saw my mother after it happened, I saw her body and I kissed her on the forehead and closed her eyes. And I said I love you and I walked away. It made me work harder at my own mental health because it didn’t work for her. I can’t believe she’s gone.”
Naomi died by suicide inside her Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee, home. It was later confirmed that she suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound on April 30, 2022, just one day before she was set to be inducted into Country Music Hall of Fame.
“Today we sisters experienced a tragedy,” Wynonna and sister Ashley Judd said in a statement following the tragic news. “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.”
While accepting the Hall of Fame honor in her mother’s place, Wynonna said, “I’m gonna make this fast because my heart’s broken and I feel so blessed. It’s a very strange dynamic, to be this broken and blessed. Though my heart’s broken, I will continue to sing because that’s what we do.”
Wynonna – who was one half of the duet The Judds with her late mother – told Luke, 48, “It’s heartbreaking to know that my mother ended her life the way she did.”
She continued, “It’s OK to not be OK. When my mother died, I had to make a decision on whether I was going to be better or bitter. I went into a deep, deep darkness and I had to pull myself out and say listen, ‘You are not the only one.’”
“I had to decide, am I gonna complain about this and feel sad, or am I gonna use it to write songs,” Wynonna said. “I just wrote a song called ‘Broken and Blessed,’ about mom, and I wrote, ‘I’m somewhere between hell and hallelujah.’ And that’s where I live.”
According to Wynonna, her mother’s ashes were spread on her “beautiful farmland.”
“I talk to her all the time. And I walk on that farm, Luke, like it’s heaven on Earth. And that’s a good day,” she told the “Country Girl” singer. “And there are days when I walk in the wilderness and I’ll be honest with you, I cry from my deepest part of who I am.”
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