Getty Singers Wynonna Judd and Naomi Judd
Country superstar and “Dancing With the Stars” season 16 alum Wynonna Judd took to Instagram to write an emotional message about her mother Naomi Judd’s passing, admitting that she is struggling and that sometimes she feels “so helpless.”
Here is what Wynonna had to say about Naomi’s passing and how she’s trying to pick up the pieces:
Wynonna Said the Pain is So Great, She’s Not Sure She’ll Ever Fully Accept What Happened
On April 30, Naomi Judd died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound after years of struggling with depression. In an emotional post about her mother, Wynonna said that her pain is so great that she may never accept that this is how The Judds’ story ends.
Wynonna writes:
I do know that the pain of losing Mom on 4/30 to suicide is so great, that I often feel like I’m not ever going to be able to fully accept and surrender to the truth that she left the way she did. This cannot be how The Judds story ends.
She then vowed to be there for her grandchild Kaliyah, she is vowing to put in the work to “break the cycle of addiction and family dysfunction.”
“I must continue to show up for myself {first} and do the personal healing work. I know that it is a simple steps program, and those steps are not easy to take at times. Therefore, I’ve made a commitment to keep doing the “next right thing,” and schedule weekly appointments so that I continue with the ongoing work, even when I have good days,” writes the singer.
Wynonna further said that she feels “so helpless” right now, but that it’s OK to admit she is “not able to do this grieving thing all by [her]self, and that it’s okay to reach out for help.”
She concluded by saying, “I will continue to fight for my faith, for my SELF, for my family, and I WILL continue to show up & sing. Thank you all for your love and support. Let’s check in more often.”
Ashley Wrote a Similar Tribute on Mother’s Day
On Mother’s Day, actress Ashley Judd, who is Wynonna’s younger half-sister, wrote an emotional essay for USA Today about the pain of losing her mother.
“It wasn’t supposed to be this way. I was supposed to visit her on Sunday, to give her a box of old-fashioned candy, our family tradition. We were supposed to have sweet delight in each other’s easy presence. Instead, I am unmoored. But my heart is not empty. It is replete with gratitude for what she left behind. Her nurture and tenderness, her music and memory,” wrote Ashley.
Over the years, Naomi Judd had been candid about her mental health struggles, telling “Today” in a 2017 interview that she had been “dangerously depressed” for two years.
“I didn’t get off my couch for two years,” said Naomi. “I was so depressed that I couldn’t move … My husband (Larry Strickland) and my girlfriends and Ashley would come over and I would just go upstairs and lock the door to my bedroom … You become immobilized.”
She added, “We don’t make enough of the good neurochemicals in the brain. It’s a disease. It has nothing to do with our character … I was dangerously depressed.”
“Dancing With the Stars” returns for season 31 in the fall of 2022 on Disney Plus.
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