Country western star Wynonna Judd has confirmed that she and her sister, Emmy Award-nominated actor Ashley Judd, are not in a relationship.
She spoke with People ahead of the release of her 10th solo studio album, “The Hard Truth,” which drops Friday, and revealed that the sisters’ rift is still ongoing after years of on-and-off discord.
Wynonna told the outlet that Ashley hasn’t listened to the album because the sisters aren’t “connected.”
“We’re making a break that all families can understand,” he said. “He does his thing, I do mine.”
In April 2022, Wynonna and Ashley’s mother, Naomi Judd, died by suicide at the age of 76, following a lifelong struggle with depression. Naomi and Wynonna formed the Grammy-winning duo the Judds.
At the time, the sisters released a statement together, writing: “Today, we sisters suffered a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to mental illness. … We are torn. We are in deep pain and know that she was loved by her people, just as we loved her. We are in uncharted territory.”
The following month, the duo attended the annual Medallion Ceremony where the Judds were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and the sisters spoke on behalf of their mother.
“While this is about the Judds as a duo, I want to take a moment and recognize my sister, who is a goat,” Ashley said at the ceremony. “Do you know what that means? I don’t think you know I called him the greatest of all time. He lives on a farm. He’s being kind of down to earth.”
Ashley told the crowd that she grew up as Wynonna’s little sister, “enjoying that sound in the house, and I’ve always been so proud of music and you. … So I know we talked a lot about my mother tonight, as we should. Our beautiful mother, and I want you to know that you’ve been inducted into the Hall of Fame tonight, too. And the newspapers don’t get it right these days, but when the Los Angeles Times says you’re like Elvis, they got it right.” I love you and I’m proud of you. My mother is proud of you too, and always has been.”
By October 2022, rumors were circulating that the sisters were fighting over their mother’s will; This was a claim that Wynonna shot down while speaking to People.
“When I was at Ashley’s house, someone said to me: ‘Hey, did you know they said that about you?’ And I said, ‘Huh? Am I fighting with Ashley?’” Wynonna said. “What are we fighting about? I have a great life. Ashley has a great life too. Why would we fight over the will?”
This wasn’t the first fight between the two. In January 2015, Wynonna tearfully described her disconnection during an appearance on AXS TV’s “The Big Interview with Dan Pretty.”
“The only thing my sister and I have in common is a missing father and both of our mothers. She and I are very different. We don’t communicate, we don’t spend time together, and it’s a long history of being apart,” Wynonna told Pretty.
Wynonna said that she and Ashley were dysfunctional, disagreeing on anything and developing separate lives, but she cared about her younger sister growing up.
“I raised Ashley, so I think we still have a lot of work to do in terms of where to find the ‘sister’ in all of this,” she said. “My sister called me mom, and I had a really hard time with it because I said, ‘I don’t want to be your mom. I want to be your sister.’