Wynonna Judd has spoken about her mother Naomi’s death on All There Is with Anderson Cooper, recalling the calls when Naomi would say she no longer wanted to be here.
Wynonna remembers her mother calling to say, “I don’t want to be here anymore.” Wynonna would stay overnight with her, trying to help as Naomi struggled with depression.
Wynonna said those conversations happened so often that she couldn’t remember when they began. Asked whether Naomi’s death had surprised her, she answered, “No.” She recalled telling her mother she had too much to live for.
“She was really struggling in the end,” Wynonna said.
Naomi, who formed The Judds with Wynonna in the 1980s, died by suicide at her home in Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee, on April 30, 2022. She was 76. Wynonna and her sister, actress Ashley Judd, announced her death together.
Afterward, Wynonna wrote about how difficult it was to accept the loss. Her first grandchild, Kaliyah, had been born on April 13, just 17 days before Naomi died.
Wynonna said she wanted to work on her own healing and break patterns of addiction and family dysfunction so she could be a healthier grandparent. She committed to weekly appointments and acknowledged needing support: “I’m not able to do this grieving thing all by myself, and that it’s okay to reach out for help.”