Ashley Judd has recovered from another leg fracture.
The Double Jeopardy actress, 54, discussed intergenerational trauma with UCLA professor Dr. Jonathan Flint on Wednesday and during the conversation revealed that she fractured her leg over the summer as she grieved the death of mom Naomi Judd. The new injury — a fracture of the femoral condyle — occurred 1 1/2 years after she nearly died in Democratic Republic of the Congo after breaking her leg deep in the rainforest in February 2021.
The recent fracture took place over the summer, Ashley said, via The Hollywood Reporter. “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.”
She said the injury “really allowed me to grieve” because she was forced “to stop what I was working on at that moment” and cope with her loss. She said the fracture was less serious than her 2021 accident, when she nearly bled to death during 55-hour journey to the hospital, required multiple surgeries and had to learn to walk again.
It “healed in two months, lickety-split” this time, Ashley said. She didn’t reveal whether or not it was the same leg.
Ashley spoke of her grief over her mom’s death by suicide on April 30. She was the one to discover The Judds icon, who suffered from mental illness, and held her in her final moments.
“The day that my beloved mother died by suicide, I had so many people to call,” she recalled. “There were five women who were with me within moments of my sharing that tragic news with them, and they are my chosen sisters.” She also spoke about her partner — without naming him, but it had been Harvard professor Martin Surbeck — saying he happened to be in Europe and was able to get to Naomi’s husband, Larry Strickland, in Vienna to assist him home. “Pop never would’Ve been able to navigate that transatlantic flight by himself,” she said. “That was a real blessing.”
Ashley also spoke of her sister Wynonna saying, “We love each other and we show up for each other. We don’t agree on much but we support one another.”
She recently saw her sibling on The Judds final tour, sharing a clip of them on stage. She said she didn’t pore over the comments, but assumes “there is a cohort of people who are being vilely ugly” over her appearance as she mourns her mom and recovers from her latest leg injury.
“I’ve put on some weight and I’m sure people are talking about it but I don’t pay any attention to it because I know it’s a temporary condition and the weight will come off when it’s supposed to,” she said. “It’s none of my business what people think of me… I have a healthy boundary about it but I also know that misogyny is a real thing in our culture. You try being a once ultra-fit woman who’s 54 and put on some weight. That is going to spark some very sexist conversations by both men and women and others in our culture.”
Ashley also referenced the “legal piece” of her mom’s death, which has been fighting to block the release of the death investigation findings. Among things she doesn’t want made public are her mother’s medical records as well as video footage of police interviewing her in the final moments of Naomi’s life.
On Wednesday, it was announced Wynonna will headline a history-making concert event — The Judds: Love Is Alive — The Final Concert —at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) on Nov. 3, recreating The Judds 1991 Farewell Tour. The event will feature musical guests Brandi Carlile, Martina McBride, Kelsea Ballerini, Ashley McBryde, Little Big Town and more, and air on CMT in March 2023.
If you or someone you know are experiencing suicidal thoughts, call 911, or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.
