Ashley Judd describes finding mother Naomi Judd shot and ‘holding her laboring body’

Actress Ashley Judd wrote in a tell-all essay about the pain she experienced following the death of her mother, Naomi Judd, including some she faced because of police officers.

“April 30, 2022, was the most shattering day of my life,” Judd wrote for The New York Times. “My beloved mother, Naomi Judd, who had come to believe that her mental illness would only get worse, never better, took her own life that day. The trauma of discovering and then holding her laboring body haunts my nights.”

The 76-year-old singer suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to a coroner’s report obtained by The Associated Press.

What followed, according to Ashley Judd, was a series of questioning by police that made the youngest Judd daughter feel like a suspect, she wrote in the Times essay published on Wednesday, Aug. 31.

“I felt cornered and powerless as law enforcement officers began questioning me while the last of my mother’s life was fading,” she said. “I wanted to be comforting her, telling her how she was about to see her daddy and younger brother as she ‘went away home,’ as we say in Appalachia.

“Instead, without it being indicated I had any choices about when, where and how to participate, I began a series of interviews that felt mandatory and imposed on me that drew me away from the precious end of my mother’s life.”

She said the “horror” of the day worsened as details of her mother’s death were disclosed, which is legal according to law in Tennessee where the death occurred.

In an interview with “Good Morning America” in May, Judd revealed her mother had used a firearm in her death. She revealed that information, she said, out of fear someone else would.

Earlier this month, the Judd family filed a court petition to prevent the release of video and audio interviews following Naomi Judd’s death, The Tennessean reported. The motion will be heard in September.

Law enforcement procedures “that wreak havoc on mourning families” need to be reformed, Judd wrote in her essay. She also has urged lawmakers to provide protections for families during mental health emergencies.

When she was interviewed by police, Judd said she was not aware it could ever be made public.

“There is absolutely no compelling public interest in the case of my mother to justify releasing the videos, images and family interviews that were done in the course of that investigation,” Judd said. “Quite the contrary. Not only does making such material public do irreparable harm to the family; it can act as a contagion among a population vulnerable to self-harm.”

This story was originally published August 31, 2022 at 11:49 AM with the headline "Ashley Judd describes finding mother Naomi Judd shot and ‘holding her laboring body’."