Actress Ashley Judd has revealed the final conversation she had with her mother and country music icon, Naomi Judd, before she died of a tragic suicide.
Ashley opened up about it in the docuseries
The 57-year-old Divergent actress opened up about losing her mother in a recent episode of the new docuseries The Judd Family: Truth Be Told.
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She revealed what her mother’s final moments were like before she died of suicide aged 76 in 2022.
Ashley had received a text
Explaining what happened, Ashley shared that she received a text from her mother, Naomi, on the morning of her passing. The text from her mother read, “Please help.”
Ashley recalled, “When I got there, Mom was very uncomfortable in her body, pacing around the kitchen and expressing that she didn’t want to be here anymore.”
She tried to ground her mother
Ashley approached her mother to try and soothe her. She explained, “I put my hand on her leg and she patted me and she slowly softened and came back to herself and calmed down and shared a couple of things that I would say are private, between us, about why she chose to continue to live.”
But things didn’t remain so calm
Ashley recalled that Naomi went upstairs and when she went to check on her, she discovered her mother “had harmed herself.”
“And then I spent the next whatever it was — half hour — just holding my mother and talking to her, and the first thing I said to her was, ‘It’s OK, I’ve seen how much you’ve been suffering,’” Ashley shared.
She told her it was OK
Ashley added, “And we just breathed together, and I talked to her and told her how much I loved her, and it’s OK to go.”
The Missing actress spoke honestly, saying that once her mother had passed, “my most earnest wish was to make sure that she was relieved and absolved of her guilt and her shame.”
Ashley remembered their loving relationship
“I was holding her hand. I was kissing her,” the actress recalled. “She was so soft. She smelled so pretty.”
Ashley remembered her mother’s final moments with love, saying that it was an ‘honor’ to be in Naomi’s life.
She was glad she got to be there
Ashley said, “It was like this final consummation of the love in the relationship that we had transformed. What an honor, to be born into this human life, to be chosen by her. I got to hold space, I got to bookend. And I’m just so glad I was there.”
Naomi struggled with her mental health
The country singer struggled with her mental health for years before her death. She allegedly wrote a suicide note asking for her other daughter and singing partner, Wynonna, not to attend her funeral.
The note read, “Do not let Wy come to my funeral. She’s mentally ill.” But despite her mother allegedly requesting otherwise, Wynonna did attend Naomi’s funeral.