Country music icon Naomi Judd died on April 30 at the age of 75, from a self-harm firearm wound, daughter Ashley Judd confirmed in a new interview on Thursday morning.
According to Variety, Ashley Judd appeared in 'Good Morning America' and talked to Diane Sawyer about the death of her mother and how the Judd family has dealt with them in the weeks since then. She said her family wanted to control the flow of information about death before the autopsy was announced.
"She used a weapon...my mother used a firearm," Ashley told to Sawyer. "So that's the piece of information that we are very uncomfortable sharing, but understand that we're in a position that if we don't say it someone else is going to."
Ashley said her family had ordered her to discuss the death of her mother to shed light on her illness and on the path for fans in need.
She said, "My mother knew that she was seen and she was heard in her anguish, and she was walked home."
In addition to this, she added, "When we're talking about mental illness, it's very important to be clear and to make the distinction between our loved one and the disease. It's very real, and it lies, it's savage."
Ashley also said she couldn't face the illness, even though her mother was going to enter the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum.
Continuing about her mother, Ashley said, "Our mother couldn't hang on until she was inducted into the Hall of Fame by her peers. That is the level of a catastrophe of what was going on inside of her, because the barrier between the regard in which they held her couldn't penetrate into her heart, and the lie the disease told her was so convincing."
The 'Double Jeopardy' star also revealed that she was the one who found her mother dead.
As per Variety, "It was a mixed day," she exclaimed. "I visit with my mom and pop every day when I'm home in Tennessee, so I was at the house visiting as I am every day. Mom said to me, 'Will you stay with me?' and I said, 'Of course, I will.'...I went upstairs to let her know that her good friend was there and I discovered her. I have both grief and trauma from discovering her."
She also recommended fans contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline if they need help.
In a statement released shortly after her mother's death, Ashley Judd and her sister Wynonna announced on April 30 that her mother died "the disease of mental illness."
"Today we sisters experienced a tragedy," the statement said, according to the Associated Press. "We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness. 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," reported Variety.
The sisters broke up at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum just one day after Naomi and Wynonna introduced The Judds.
"I didn't prepare anything tonight because I knew mom would probably talk the most," Wynonna shared to the audience during the interview. "I'm gonna make this fast because my heart's broken, and I feel so blessed. It's a very strange dynamic, to be this broken and this blessed... Though my heart's broken, I will continue to sing, because that's what we do," she added.
Naomi revealed in 2016 that she had battled severe depression and anxiety since she and Wynonna, 57, stopped touring together in 2011.
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