Ashley Judd: I Feel Bad for My Mother!

Actress expresses regret over the media's focus on her mom's wayward parenting and says she's overcome her troubled past and sexual abuse

By Cristina Gibson Apr 07, 2011 3:09 AMTags
E! Placeholder Image

Ashley Judd wants to set the record straight: Despite the troubled upbringing she exposes in her new memoir, she's not a victim.

The actress says she actually feels sorry for her "poor mother," Naomi Judd, because of the bad rap she's now receiving...

MORE: What the Heck Is Going On With Ashley Judd's Face?

"It's been a little bewildering for me," she told a small group during a private party thrown by More magazine at Soho House in NYC tonight. "My poor mother, who's incredibly witty and so quick with a quip, she's probably regretting she said 'We put the fun in dysfunctional.'"

The actress feels the press has focused too much on her personal battles written about in the book instead of the struggles of global victims she tried to shed light on.

"They put disproportionate emphasis on the fact that we had a family system that didn't work very well and the kinds of the things that happen in those family systems happen to all of us," she continued to a crowd that included Gloria Steinem and More's editrix Lesley Jane Seymour.

"What I wanted to do this afternoon was just quit. I had the ridiculous assumption that the interview I was doing with a very serious news outlet was going to be a news interview...and it wasn't. It was just really disappointing. I was like 'I'm done. I'm going to go home and take a nap.' And I called one of my mentors, and he said 'Can you just hold your nose during the smelly questions and get through it and think of the people you committed your life to?'," she shared.

She acknowledges the power of Twitter in shedding attention to the abuse other women have faced, as well.

"Maybe what it takes is for people to tweet about the fact that I'm a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. Well, so what? I'd say about 80 percent of the people in the U.S., according to statistics, have. I remind myself that my story is a surrogate story so that people will buy the book," she said.

We're thinking she's accomplished that mission.

WATCH: Naomi and Wynonna Judd meet with a life coach