In a heart-wrenching op-ed tribute, the 'Double Jeopardy' actress admits that even though her late mother's legacy keeps her going, her heart is filled with 'incandescent rage.'
- May 7, 2022
AceShowbiz - It has been one week since Naomi Judd passed away, but the pain of losing loved one in Ashley Judd's heart is still fresh. Just days before celebrating her first Mother's Day without the country music icon, the "Double Jeopardy" actress wrote a poignant essay in which she lamented over her "stolen" mom.
In the op-ed published by USA Today on Friday, May 6, the "Kiss the Girls" actress expressed her deep grief over the late Grammy Award-winning singer's death. "This Sunday is abruptly, shockingly, my first Mother's Day without my mama," she began writing, "She died just days before my sister and I could show her again how much we love and honor her."
Ashley pointed out that it was not "supposed to be this way," and that her heart was filled with "incandescent rage." The 54-year-old actress went on explaining, "Because my mother was stolen from me by the disease of mental illness, by the wounds she carried from a lifetime of injustices that started when she was a girl. Because she was a girl."
However, the "High Crimes" actress noted that her mother's legacy kept her going. "But my heart is not empty. It is replete with gratitude for what she left behind," she wrote, "Her nurture and tenderness, her music and memory."
Within the essay, Ashley went on to share her late mother's experience of being a parent. The "Divergent" actress emphasized that "my mama was an extraordinary parent." She further added, "But motherhood happened to her without her consent. She experienced an unintended pregnancy at age 17, and that led her down a road familiar to so many adolescent mothers, including poverty and gender-based violence."
Elaborating more, the actress confessed that she was filled with "painful specifics" about Naomi's journey of being a mother. "Forgive me if my grief isn't tidy. When I think about my mother, I am awash in the painful specifics," she admitted, "It's a little easier, this Mother's Day, to think about mothers in the collective, to wonder whether we value them."
"My mama was a legend. She was an artist and a storyteller, but she had to fight like hell to overcome the hand she was dealt, to earn her place in history," the younger sister of Wynonna Judd further divulged. "She shouldn't have had to fight that hard to share her gifts with the world."
Ashley then wrapped up her heart-wrenching tribute by asking people to honor their mothers. "This Mother's Day, I choose to honor my mama for the person she was, a mother and so much more," she stated, "And I ask you to honor your own mother, if you are lucky enough to have her. Honor her for more than her labor and sacrifice. Honor her for her talents and dreams. Honor her by demanding a world where motherhood, everywhere, is safe, healthy -- and chosen."
Naomi passed away at the age of 76 on April 30. The one-half of The Judds spent years struggling with mental illness before her death.
