First Ashley, Now Naomi Judd Admits Own History of Sexual Abuse

Following in her daughters' revelatory footsteps, musical matriarch shares that she was molested by a male relative when she was just 3

By Gina Serpe Apr 08, 2011 3:05 PMTags

This is not the sort of trait anyone wants to run in their family.

On the heels of Ashley Judd's admission of sexual molestation in her headline-grabbing memoir, Naomi Judd—coincidentally on a publicity tour with eldest daughter Wynonna—revealed that she, too, has a history of sexual abuse stemming from her childhood.

While appearing on The View yesterday, Naomi revealed that her first memory, from when she was 3 1/2, was of her fending off a male relative who was attempting to sexually abuse her.

"I rebuffed him, and it happened a couple…twice more," she said. "I knocked him away. I never said anything to anybody, I just kept it to myself."

The revelation was initially made on her and Wynonna's upcoming OWN docu-series, The Judds (debuting this Sunday), and Naomi, who declined to name the abuser, did say that he has since passed away.

"Isn't it interesting that—and of course I'm not terminally unique, we know that one out of three women in this country... I never told a single soul until about two years ago," she said of her abuse.

She made the disclosure to her longtime therapist after he one day asked her what her first memory was, "as if in 12 years of therapy he'd never asked me that question before."

"I told him, well, being sexually abused was my first memory. And he about fell off his seat."

After the disclosure, and the therapist's further probing, Naomi said that she "fell apart," after realizing the reason she had never before opened up about her abuse was because, "I realized I didn't trust my mother."

As for Wynonna, she said that she only recently was told about her mother's history.

"She told me on tour, I found out then and I was a little resentful that the cameras were on, because this is such a personal thing," she said. "But I think we're willing to step out on faith and hope that it helps someone else to tell someone because there is a lot of shame and secrecy."

Barbara Walters then asked Wynonna, what with the recent brave disclosures by her sister Ashley and mother Naomi if she was ever the victim of sexual abuse, she answered in the affirmative.

"Mmm-hmm. I discussed it in my book. I talked about it. I haven't faced him yet. I'm a work in progress."

The mother-daughter team naturally also discussed Ashley's book and one of the pitfalls of their concurrent tours.

"People are trying to pit us against each other," Wynonna said. "We agree to disagree in this family."

Naomi added, "These two girls are the joy of my life, I support Ashley. I would give anything if my mother would acknowledge my reality. We all have three different realities of the same car ride of the nightmares we were in, it's her turn to tell her side of the story."