The Judd family – matriarch Naomi and her daughters Wynonna and Ashley – always seemed to have a smiling face for the public.
But behind that bright façade was a family secret that overshadowed their lives.
The sisters are revealing that secret in a new Lifetime documentary series, The Judd Family: Truth Be Told.
The tell-all will debut some three years after Naomi’s death by suicide at age 76.
The trailer begins with a light-hearted television appearance by Naomi and Wynonna, 60.
‘You love me?’ Naomi asks as she holds Wynonna’s head to shake it ‘yes.’
‘You ever gonna leave me?’ she then asks and she laughingly uses her hand to shake her daughter’s head from side to side as a ‘no.’
Wynonna Judd, 60 and her younger sister Ashley, 56, are opening up about a dark secret that has haunted their family for generations. The four-part documentary The Judds: Truth Be Told will debut on Lifetime on Mother’s Day weekend, May 10 and 11
Ashley broke down in tears as she said her mother ‘had no idea what I went through as a child’
‘Okay,’ Naomi said happily.
The mother-daughter duo known as The Judds first made their mark in the music world in 1983, with their single Had a Dream (For the Heart), which was followed a year later by their first number one song, Mama He’s Crazy.
The pair would go on to have 13 more number ones.
‘I was so proud of their success,’ Ashley, 56, says in a confessional.
‘It was magical on stage,’ admits Wynonna, ‘but off stage…’ the Love Will Build A Bridge artist doesn’t complete her sentence, but instead offers a big exhale to hint about problems behind the scenes.
A soundbite from an unseen man explains, ‘Naomi spent her whole life building this narrative,’ as the trailer cuts to Ashley saying her mother that she ‘had no idea what I went through as a child.’
‘I was old enough to know something was wrong,’ Wynonna says during a confessional, later adding, ‘It’s a blessing and a burden to be that close to your mother.’
‘She was afraid telling the truth would break her,’ Ashley is heard saying, and then a male relative unveils the horror that has haunted the family for generations.
The mother-daughter duo The Judds, first made their mark in the music world in 1983, with their single Had a Dream (For the Heart), which was followed a year later by their first number one song, Mama He’s Crazy
Over the course of their career, The Judds had 14 number one hits. ‘It was magical on stage,’ admits Wynonna in the newly released trailer, ‘but off stage…’
A soundbite from an unseen man explains, ‘Naomi spent her whole life building this narrative,’ followed later by Ashley who claimed ‘She was afraid telling the truth would break her’
The voice of a male relative reveals the burden the trio and their extended family have been carrying. ‘My grandmother had two brothers who were predators’
‘My grandmother had two brothers who were predators,’ said Ashley.
The four-part series directed by Alexandra Dean, uses family photos and archival footage, along with present day interviews to tell the the story of generational sexual abuse.
In her 2011 memoir, All That Is Bitter & Sweet, the She Said actress revealed she was sexually abused as a child, but has not revealed who harmed her.
Wynonna made a similar revelation in her 2007 autobiography Coming Home To Myself.
‘I was old enough to know something was wrong’ Wynonna says during a confessional, later adding, ‘It’s a blessing and a burden to be that close to your mother’
The four-part series directed by Alexandra Dean, uses family photos and archival footage, along with present day interviews to tell the the story of generational sexual abuse
In 2011 during an appearance on The View, Naomi revealed her own abuse which began very early in her life.
‘I told (my therapist), well, being sexually abused was my first memory, and he about fell off his seat,’ the Grammy winner told the panel.
‘I realized I didn’t trust my mother. I grew up in a family of secrets.’
The Judd Family: Truth Be Told part one will debut on Mother’s Day, May 10, with part two showing on May 11.
