Naomi Judd, the legendary country music singer, died of a self-inflicted firearm wound, the musician’s family revealed.
The matriarch of the Judd family battled with depression and mental illness; as her daughter Ashley noted in an interview with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America, it is “important to make the distinction between the loved one and the disease.”
Furthermore, in the same conversation, Ashley explained the specific cause of death due to the likelihood of someone disclosing it to the public.
“Because we do not want it to be a part of the gossip economy, I will share with you that she used a weapon,” Ashley Judd said. “Mother used a firearm. So that’s the piece of information we are very uncomfortable sharing, but we know we are in a position that if we don’t say it, someone else is going to.”
As the interview continued, Judd revealed that she was the one who discovered her mother on the day of her passing. Furthermore, the family asked that additional details of the passing remain private among the family.
Previously, Ashley and her sister, Wynonna, disclosed on April 30 that their mother had passed.
“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,” Ashley wrote on Twitter.
During their music career, the family, which was recently inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, won five Grammys, nine CMA awards, and seven ACM awards.
CMT will air a live memorial of Naomi’s life at 6 p.m. Sunday, May 15, from Nashville.
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Cooper Moran is a reporter for The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Naomi Judd” by Naomi Judd.
