Grammy-winning country music star Naomi Judd — one half of the hit-making, mother-daughter duo The Judds — died from self-inflicted gunshot wound, her daughter actor Ashley Judd confirmed on Thursday.
Ashley Judd told Good Morning America that her mother “used a firearm” to commit suicide on April 30, and that the only reason why she was sharing this information was out of fear that it would come out another way, without the family’s control.
Ashley explained that she has been “deputized” to “speak on behalf of the family at this early time, before things about the 30th of April become public without our control, whether it’s the autopsy or the exact manner of her death.”
“That’s really the impetus of this timing, otherwise it’s obviously way too soon,” she added. “I’m tasked with an exceedingly difficult task in disclosing the manner of the way my mother chose not to continue to live. And I’ve thought about this so much, because once I say it, it cannot be unsaid.”
“And so, because we don’t want it to be a part of the gossip economy, I will share with you that she used a weapon,” Ashley confirmed. “Mother used a firearm.”
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Elsewhere in the interview, Ashley said her mother “knew that she was seen and she was heard in her anguish, and she was walked home.”
“When we’re talking about mental illness, it’s very important to be clear and to make the distinction between our loved one and the disease. It’s very real, and it lies. It’s savage,” the singer’s daughter affirmed.
“Our mother couldn’t hang on until she was inducted into the Hall of Fame by her peers,” she added. “That is the level of catastrophe of what was going on inside of her, because the barrier between the regard in which they held her couldn’t penetrate into her heart and the lie the disease told her was so convincing.”
Naomi Judd was supposed to celebrate her induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame on May 1, but died by suicide on April 30. The country star’s induction proceeded in what turned out to be a tearful ceremony the following day.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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