Naomi Judd died by suicide on April 30 earlier this year after suffering from depression, just a day before she and Wynonna were scheduled to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Naomi Judd, the late country singer, excluded her two daughters Wynonna and Ashley from her final will and estate. Instead, she appointed Larry Strickland, her husband of 33 years, as the executor of her estate, according to court records, as per PageSix.
Judd died by suicide on April 30 earlier this year after suffering from depression. In her will, which came into effect on November 20, 2017, Judd stipulated that her 76-year-old husband should have "complete authority and discretion" over any property that is an asset to her estate, "without the approval of any court" or permission from any beneficiary of the estate.
Naomi Judd left her daughters, Wynonna and Ashley, out of her will https://t.co/doSdhVUOMF
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) August 2, 2022
According to the records, Judd also ensured that Strickland would be entitled to "reasonable compensation" for his services as well as payment for or reimbursement of all "reasonable expenses, advances and disbursements, including attorney's and accountant's fees, made or incurred in the administration of my estate."
Radar claims that a source told them Wynonna disapproves of her mother's decision because she "believes she was a big driver for her mother's success." Wynonna's representatives could not be reached for comment, and a legal representative for Ashley also declined to make any statement. One day before her death, Judd and her daughter-bandmate Wynonna were scheduled to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Two witnesses, including a senior account manager at a Tennessee law firm, Wiatr & Associates, vouched that Love Can Build a Bridge singer was of “sound mind, memory and understand, and not under any restraint or in any in any respect incompetent to make a Last Will and Testament.”
"We are shocked and saddened by the death of Naomi Judd, who enters the Country Music Hall of Fame tomorrow as a member of the @juddsofficial. Her family has asked that we continue with the Judds' Hall of Fame induction Sunday. We will do so, with heavy hearts."
— Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum (@countrymusichof) May 1, 2022
—Kyle Young, CEO pic.twitter.com/4mcLLQrjfX
Judd also asked that in the event Strickland could not be executor due to death or any other reason, she wanted her brother-in-law, Reginald Strickland, and Daniel Kris Wiatr, the president of Wiatr & Associates, to serve as co-executors.
In an essay that Ashley penned on the first mother's day after Judd's death, she announced that they had lost their “beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness.” She added, “It wasn’t supposed to be this way. I was supposed to visit her on Sunday, to give her a box of old-fashioned candy, our family tradition. We were supposed to have sweet delight in each others’ easy presence. Instead, I am unmoored.”
“Our mother couldn’t hang on to be recognized by her peers. That is the level of the catastrophe of what was going on inside of her,” she told ABC’s Diane Sawyer. “Because the barrier between the regard in which they held her couldn’t penetrate into her heart and the lie the disease told her was so convincing.” Ashley also stated in a podcast interview in July that she could "see" that her mother was in anguish after years of battling an "undiagnosed and untreated mental illness."
While sharing her grief, Wynonna wrote that she felt "helpless" and made a commitment to "end the cycle of addiction & family dysfunction." She mentioned that she must "continue to show up for myself [first] and do the personal healing work."
References:
https://pagesix.com/2022/08/01/wynonna-and-ashley-judd-left-out-of-mom-naomis-will/
https://radaronline.com/p/naomi-judd-cut-wynonna-ashley-25-million-will-suicide-documents/
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Evan Agostini
