Ashley Judd is getting candid about the last conversation she had with her mom, Naomi Judd.
In the “Judd Family: Truth Be Told” docuseries, the “Double Jeopardy” actress revealed she got a text that read, “pls help” on the morning the “Love Can Build a Bridge” singer fatally shot herself in April 2022.
When Ashley arrived at Naomi’s home, she noticed her mom pacing around the kitchen and expressing that she “didn’t want to be here anymore.”
The “Kiss the Girls” star said the country music legend eventually calmed down and talked to her about why she was one of the reasons she “continued to live” despite her mental health struggles.
“And I said, ‘You don’t have to worry about me, Mom. I’m OK. I’m OK.’ And she really clocked that in a really deep way,” Ashley, 57, recalled.
Naomi later went upstairs and did not respond when Ashley called out for her.
When the “A Time to Kill” actress went into Naomi’s bedroom, she noticed her mom “had harmed herself.”
For the next half-hour, Ashley held the six-time Grammy winner and talked to her.
“The first thing I said to her was, ‘It’s Ok, it’s OK. I’ve seen how much you’ve been suffering,’” she remembered.
“And we just breathed together, and I talked to her and told her how much I loved her, and it’s OK to go.”
Ashley said that when her mom died, her “most earnest wish was to make sure that she was relieved and absolved of her guilt and her shame.”
“I was holding her hand. I was kissing her. She was so soft. She smelled so pretty,” she recalled.
Naomi died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on April 30, 2022. She was 76.
Years before her death, the musician was open about her mental health struggles, saying in 2016 that she had been facing “extreme” and “severe depression” that left her housebound.
The “Turn It Loose” songstress was also a mom to daughter Wynonna Judd, 60.
“The Judd Family: Truth Be Told” is now available to watch on Lifetime.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.
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