Wynonna and Ashley Judd are sharing rare insight into their relationship with their late mom, Naomi Judd, in the Lifetime docuseries, The Judd Family: Truth Be Told.
In the docuseries, which is airing May 10 and 11, both the country singer and Divergent actress candidly spoke about their upbringing, fame and Naomi’s death. While Ashley said that she was “so proud” of Wynonna and Naomi’s success as The Judds, Wynonna called it a “blessing and a burden to be that close to your mother.”
Over the years, Wynonna and Ashley’s relationship has had its ups and downs, but after Naomi died by suicide at 76 on April 30, 2022, Wynonna told Today that she and Ashley were closer than they’d been “in a long time.”
Ahead of the docuseries’ premiere, Naomi’s widower, Larry Strickland, agreed and told PEOPLE that Naomi’s death brought Wynonna and Ashley closer together.
“They were forced together,” Strickland said in April 2025. “We all had to come together around this trauma, this tragic event. And it, of course, opened our eyes about how short life can be and how fleeting. Realizing that we lost a wife and mother, it forced us to be together, whether we wanted to or not. It just really drove me closer to them because they’re what’s left of [Naomi].”
From growing up in the South to how they came together after their mom’s death, here’s everything to know about Wynonna and Ashley Judd’s sister relationship.
They grew up in both Kentucky and Tennessee
Wynonna was born in Kentucky on May 30, 1964, to Naomi and her then-boyfriend Charles Jordan. However, Jordan left Naomi, and she married Michael Ciminella shortly after. The pair welcomed their daughter, Ashley, on April 19, 1968, and they moved to Los Angeles.
Naomi and Ciminella divorced just four years later, and Naomi moved back to Kentucky with her daughters in 1976. Three years later, they moved again to Nashville, Tenn., so that Naomi and Wynonna could pursue their country music careers.
Ashley called Wynonna “Sister Mommy” when they were younger
In a televised interview with Dan Rather in 2015, Wynonna shared that growing up, she and Ashley were very different, and the only thing they had in common was a missing father and a shared mother.
“We don’t communicate nor do we spend time together,” Wynonna said at the time. “And that’s a long history of being apart. I was away from Ashley at age 18. She was 14. And I think at 14, Ashley became independent of the family. I think out of necessity.”
The “No One Else on Earth” singer added that when they were young, Ashley saw her as a mother figure, which was difficult for Wynonna, who wanted to have more of a sisterly role.
“She called me ‘Sister Mommy,’ and I really had a hard time with that,” she said. “Because I was like, ‘I don’t want to be your mommy. I want to be your sister.’ But the way life was, I was famous at 18. I wasn’t there for her prom. I wasn’t there as a sister.”
Wynonna and Ashley shared a farm with their mother
All of the Judd women lived on the same family farm in Nashville for some time before Naomi died. In 2016, Naomi gave Oprah a tour of the property, sharing that Ashley lived a one-minute car ride from her front door while Wynonna was six minutes away.
Naomi purchased the property in 1995 and called it “Peaceful Valley.” Both of her daughters lived over the hill, with Wynonna moving to the area with her two children, Elijah and Grace, in 2012.
They had different relationships with Naomi throughout their lives
When Wynonna was 18, she became part of the duo The Judds with her mom, and the two embarked on tours together, producing six albums in their time before Wynonna went solo. However, after their last tour in 2010, Wynonna and her mother had a falling out and stopped speaking.
“We’ve been together more than we’ve not,” she told Rather. “So it’s really strange to go about this professionally. She’s my mom. And we just don’t talk.”
Naomi reflected on her relationship with both daughters in an interview with ABC News in 2016, sharing that she and Ashley had an easier time because they were more alike.
“Ashley and I are so stinkin’ much alike,” she said. “I mean we have the same mannerisms. We both read a whole lot. We both love new places. I mean there’s such similarities.”
She added that with Wynonna, things could be difficult sometimes because she was the first child, so Naomi made some mistakes while raising her.
“From the day I knew she existed, it was the two of us against the world and then through the decades we kind of grew up together, ’cause it was really just the two of us,” she said. “And I’m always tellin’ her, ‘If I’d known better, I would have done better.’ ”
Naomi added, “So Wy bore the brunt of all of the mistakes I made and we talk about ’em. We’ve been through a lot of therapy together.”
Wynonna helped Ashley recover after she shattered her leg
In 2021, Ashley had a serious accident when she broke her leg after tripping in a forest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, landing her in the ICU. The recovery process was long and arduous, leaving Ashley in a cast for some time.
She reached out to her older sister to help her with day-to-day tasks — including washing her hair.
“Therein lies the job of a big sister right there,” Wynonna told Page Six in March 2021. “She said, ‘I have a request. Can you wash my hair?’ I said, ‘Sure,’ so I’m looking up ways to wash someone’s hair lying down.”
They put rumors they were feuding to rest after the death of their mom
After Naomi died, rumors swirled that Wynonna and Ashley were fighting over her estate and will. However, Wynonna put those to bed when she told PEOPLE in October 2022 that there’s “no argument” between the sisters.
“Someone told me while I was at Ashley’s house, ‘Hey, did you know that they’re saying this about you?’ I went, ‘Huh? I’m fighting with Ashley? Oh. Again?’ ” she said. “Fighting over what? I have such a great life. Ashley has a great life. Why would we be fighting over the will?”
She added that her mother’s death only brought her and Ashley closer as they supported each other.
“I feel like we’re connected in a way that is so different because I’m an orphan,” Wynonna said. “Both my parents are gone, and I’m relying on Ashley. She’s relying on me in a different way that’s about compassion. It’s not about being successful and smart and capable. It’s about, ‘I love you.’ ‘I love you, too.’ We’re vulnerable with each other, and we’re tender.”
The singer said that a life coach helped the sisters find a way to “communication, compromise and compassion,” leading her relationship with Ashley to become the “most powerful” in her life.
“Ashley and I are very different people, and we are learning that we have more in common than we don’t,” she said. “That’s really interesting, because when you’re younger, you think there’s more disconnect. We had a really deep conversation the other day, and we got through it and nobody got hurt.”
Ashley echoed similar sentiments on the Healing with David Kessler podcast a few months earlier, sharing that though they were in different stages of their grieving process, they still found ways to bond and show up for each other.
“Sister came over yesterday and spent the day with me and spent the night and we talked about mom, we talked about social issues,” she said. “She gave me a foot rub and she’s in a pretty different place than I am right now. And we don’t have to be congruent in order to have compassion for each other and I think that that’s a really important grace that family members can hopefully learn to give each other.”
Read the full article here
