'It helped me grieve': Ashley Judd broke her leg in 'freak accident' while mourning mom Naomi Judd's death
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Ashley Judd suffered a leg fracture in what she refers to as "just this freak accident" while mourning the death of her mother, Naomi Judd. On Thursday, October 27, the actress revealed it while participating in an Open Mind lecture and conversation series on Zoom with UCLA lecturer Dr Jonathan Flint.
The 'Double Jeopardy' star said, “It was what it was. Clumsiness is associated with grief, and there were other people in our family, after mom died, who fell down stairs and had accidents, and that’s just what mine happened to look like. It really allowed me to grieve. It really allowed me to stop what I was working on at that moment and to grieve.” Less than two years had gone by when Ashley suffered a fracture of the femoral condyle after falling on a trekking trip in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ashley informed Flint toward the end of the "wide-ranging, hour-long conversation" that the current fracture was significantly less serious and "healed in two months, lickety-split."
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Naomi Judd's FINAL days: Husband Larry Strickland says singer was in 'FRAGILE' state before suicide
Naomi Judd fatally shot herself on April 30 in the Tennessee home she shared with her longtime partner Larry Strickland, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Ashley had previously disclosed that she was the one who discovered her mother soon after the gunshot. Strickland was seen looking over Ashley's shoulder at the start of the online event as she explained that she had to rush to "mom and my pop's house" for Wi-Fi since there was an Internet outage at her home.
According to the 'Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood' singer, who told the New York Times in August that law enforcement personnel should be trained in how to respond to and investigate cases involving trauma," she felt like a "possible suspect" on the scene. Ashley wanted to "comfort" her dying mom as her "life was fading," but thought that answering the police officer's inquiries was "mandatory."
The 54-year-old and her sister Wynonna Judd announced their mother's death at the time in a joint statement. “We are shattered,” the siblings wrote. “We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public. We are in unknown territory.” Wynonna told People that there have been "no argument[s]" over Naomi's will, dispelling claims that Ashley and the country singer, 58, are at odds. “Fighting over what?” the songwriter asked. “I have such a great life. Ashley has a great life. Why would we be fighting over the will?”
With Flint, Ashley was able to go deeply into a number of personal history-related subjects, including how she dealt with the death of her mother. Ashley was quick to give credit to her close friends and family. “The day that my beloved mother died by suicide, I had so many people to call. There were five women who were with me within moments of my sharing that tragic news with them, and they are my chosen sisters,” Ashley recalled. “I was just reflecting overnight. I had one of my 2 a.m. wake-ups overnight, and I was reflecting on those first days after her passing and how there was always someone with me at my house.”