Ashley Judd has revealed that her mother Naomi Judd died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound last month.
The country music legend died at the age of 75 on April 30, one day before she was due to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, with a statement at the time attributing her death to "the disease of mental illness".
Appearing on Good Morning America, Ashley spoke candidly about the incident, telling Diane Sawyer: "She used a weapon... my mother used a firearm.
"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."
She continued: "Our mother couldn't hang on until she was inducted into the Hall of Fame by her peers.
"That is the level of 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."
Ashley also confirmed that she was the one to find her mother's body, a discovery that has left her with "grief and trauma".
Neil Wilkes
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