Wynonna Judd and Ashley Judd became even closer following their mother Naomi Judd’s death by suicide three years ago.
“They were forced together,” Naomi’s widower, Larry Strickland, told People in an interview published on Wednesday, April 30. “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.”
He added, “Realizing that we lost a wife and mother, it forced us to be together, whether we wanted to or not.”
Naomi died by suicide in April 2022. She was 76 and is survived by Strickland, 79, Wynonna, 60, and Ashley, 57.
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“Today, we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness,” the siblings wrote in a joint statement at the time. “We are shattered. We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public. We are in unknown territory.”
Not only have Wynonna and Ashley bonded since their mother’s death, but they also formed a stronger relationship with Strickland. (He and Naomi were married from 1989 until her death in 2022.)
“It just really drove me closer to them because they’re what’s left of [Naomi],” Strickland told People. “We were close, I think, always in the early years and later years, but the fact that Naomi’s gone and Wynonna and Ashley are the main part of her that’s left, and it’s what’s still here for me to cling to and have in my life.”
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Strickland, Wynonna and Ashley are all set to open up about Naomi’s legacy in Lifetime’s upcoming docuseries The Judd Family: Truth Be Told.
A press release said: “From Naomi’s beginnings in Kentucky as a young teen mom, then known as Dianna, struggling to survive with her young daughters, the doc illustrates how the famous country music mother-daughter duo of Naomi and Wynonna Judd came to be and where Ashley stood at the height of Naomi and Wynonna’s fame.”
In a trailer, Ashley further noted that she was “so proud” of her mother and sister’s musical success despite offscreen secrets. (Wynonna and Naomi performed together as The Judds from 1983 to 1991.)
“It was magical on stage, but off stage,” Wynonna said in the footage. “I was old enough to know that something was wrong. It’s a blessing and a burden to be that close to your mother.”
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