Content warning: This story pertains to death by suicide.
Earlier this year, actress Ashley Judd lost her mother, Naomi, a legendary singer, songwriter and actress who performed in the hugely successful country music duo The Judds with her other daughter, Wynonna. Naomi also fought a decades-long struggle with depression, and, while reports into deaths are required to be public under Tennessee law, Ashley has since been fighting to block the release of the investigation into her mother’s death by suicide. Now she has articulated the reasons why.
A recent column published by The New York Times and written by the 54-year-old actress describes police officers questioning her in her mother’s final moments. Judd shares that the traumatic questioning kept her from attending to her mother, adding that family members revealed many personal things while being interrogated, and clarifying that while she does not blame officials for following procedures, she points out that the procedures themselves are terribly outdated and insensitive, and that she and the other members of her family got very personal without thinking of the potential impact of these statements being released as public records later.
“I felt cornered and powerless as law enforcement officers began questioning me while the last of my mother’s life was fading. I wanted to be comforting her, telling her how she was about to see her daddy and younger brother as she ‘went away home,’ as we say in Appalachia. Instead, without it being indicated I had any choices about when, where and how to participate, I began a series of interviews that felt mandatory and imposed on me that drew me away from the precious end of my mother’s life. And at a time when we ourselves were trying desperately to decode what might have prompted her to take her life on that day, we shared everything we could think of about mom, her illness …. men who were present left us feeling stripped of any boundary”
Judd and her relatives began petitioning the courts this month to block the release of the file, and she wraps up her piece by explaining that she wants people to remember her mother as she lived, not the intrusive particulars of her passing. It is disrespectful and irrelevant, Ashley Judd believes, for people to know how she suffered when she died; instead, Naomi’s fans should focus on the way she conducted herself.
“She should be remembered for how she lived, which was with goofy humor, glory onstage and unfailing kindness off it.”
The petition to put the records under seal has not yet been evaluated as of this story’s filing. Many public records of significant deaths do end up getting locked away or redacted — as has been the case in mass shootings — but it is not clear if they will here.
If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (En Español: 1-888-628-9454; Deaf and Hard of Hearing: 1-800-799-4889) or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. A list of international crisis resources can be found here.