Naomi Judd's death on April 30th was due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to her daughter, actress Ashley Judd. Ashley opened up about her mother's shocking death to Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America yesterday (Thursday, May 12th), saying she was visiting with Naomi that day and left her to let a family friend in the house when her mother took her life.
Ashley said, “Her brain hurt, it physically hurt and I'm tasked with an exceedingly difficult task in disclosing the matter in the way my mother chose to continue to live … because we don’t want it to be part of the gossip economy I will share with you that she used a weapon, mother used a firearm, so that's the piece of information that we are very uncomfortable sharing but understand.”
Naomi's death occurred the day before she and daughter Wynonna, together as The Judds, were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Ashley said, “Our mother couldn't hang on until she was inducted into the Hall of Fame by her peers. That was the level of catastrophe of what was going on inside her.”
As we previously reported, Naomi's life will be celebrated with a public memorial service at Nashville's Ryman Auditiorium set to air live on CMT. The special, called Naomi Judd: A River of Time Celebration, will air exclusively on the cable network as a commercial-free special on Sunday at 6 p.m. ET.