Wynonna Judd is remembering her late mother. The country singer recently took to Instagram to mark what would have been Naomi Judd’s 80th birthday with a heartbreaking post.
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On Instagram, Wynonna shared a photo of herself kissing her mom’s cheek.
“She would have been 80 today,” the grieving daughter wrote alongside the pic. “I still feel her everywhere.”
“She has 2 beautiful GREAT granddaughters we could be celebrating with,” Wynonna continued. “Why aren’t you here? I love you, Mom.”
Naomi died by suicide in April 2022. She was 76. At the time, Wynonna and her sister, Ashley Judd, shared the tragic news in a statement.
“Today we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness,” the statement read. “We are shattered.”
They added, “We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public. We are in unknown territory.”
Wynonna Judd Speaks Out About Life Since Naomi Judd’s Death
In the wake of Naomi’s death, Wynonna set out on a tour in her honor, The Judds: The Final Tour. During a 2024 episode of Austin City Limits, Wynonna opened up about the reason behind that decision.
“I lost my momma to suicide, and when she died, I thought I would die of a broken heart. So, instead, I went on tour,” she said. “A lot of people didn’t understand why. I now understand it’s because the music healed me, and the fans supported me through a very difficult time in my life.”
Speaking to Us Weekly that same year, Wynonna shared that she most often feels her mom’s presence during performances.
“On stage, I look up a lot because I see angels. Now I do it with Mom,” she told the outlet. “I’m like, ‘What the hell are you doing? Where are you and why are you not here? And why are we not singing together again?’”
Despite her continued grief, Wynonna said she’s “in a really good place.”
“I have a choice: I can either be better or bitter,” she said. “My grief comes and goes. I see it as a gift in terms of the healing part.”
Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images
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