Wynonna Judd is opening up about where she stands with her sister, actress Ashley Judd.
In her People cover story published on Wednesday, September 30, Wynonna, 62, shared that Ashley, 58, hasn’t heard her upcoming album, The Hard Truth, which drops on Friday, October 2.
Wynonna explained that the sisters aren’t “connected” at the moment, adding, “We’re taking a break, which all families can relate to. She’s doing her thing, and I’m doing mine.”
Wynonna and Ashley are the daughters of the late Naomi Judd, who died by suicide in 2022 at age 76. Naomi welcomed Wynonna with ex-boyfriend Charles Jordan in 1964 before marrying Michael Ciminella and welcoming Ashley in 1968. Naomi and Ciminella divorced in 1972. (Wynonna learned of her biological father much later in life and did not connect with him before his death in 2000.)
On her upcoming album, Wynonna explores her “complicated” feelings toward Naomi and sings on one track: “I love you, I need you, I hate you some days.”
“I feel like this is the most honest and vulnerable I’ve ever been,” Wynonna told the magazine. “It’s there for everyone to hear. So there are some days I think, ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’ And then other days I think, ‘There comes a point in your life when you are ready to tell your testimony.’”
Elsewhere on the album, Wynonna refers to Naomi as “a mama with no shame.” When asked whether she could have recorded these songs if her mom were still alive, Wynonna replied, “Yes.”
“I think I would’ve been more determined. It’s my story, and it’s my feelings,” she said. “I think it would be very painful for her. Very painful. But I also know that she knows me, that I’m so honest and so up-front.”
For Wynonna, there wasn’t “one specific thing” that inspired her to release The Hard Truth.
“When Mom died, I went into a dark hole of just wondering, ‘What the heck now?’ It’s been 10 years since I’ve put out a record,” she said, adding that a conversation with husband Cactus Moser spurred the content. (Wynonna and Moser tied the knot in 2012. She was previously married to first husband Arch Kelley III, with whom she welcomed son Elijah and estranged daughter Grace, and second husband D. R. Roach.)
“I’m somewhere between hell and hallelujah,” Wynonna recalled telling Moser of her feelings. “I said that, and he wrote it down.”
