Naomi Judd admits she was a ‘horrible’ mom to Ashley

In her controversial new memoir of childhood abuse and neglect, actress Ashley Judd says that her country-star mom Naomi Judd “created an origin myth for the Judds that did not match my reality.” Now Naomi is coming forward with her own story — and rather than defending herself, she’s taking responsibility for Ashley’s terrible childhood.

“I was horrible,” Naomi, 65, tells Us Weekly. “I didn’t know any better.”

Even so, Naomi isn’t ready to read her daughter’s book, in which Ashley, 42, describes being exposed to her family’s constant drug use, sexually abused by strangers and left alone in the house for days at a time.

“I will probably get around to reading it, because as a mom, I certainly want to honor her reality,” says Naomi. Ashley’s older sister Wynonna, 46, has read the book — and says it put her in “an unbearable place between two women that I really love.”

Despite the lurid stories in her memoir, Ashley has said that she doesn’t blame her parents for what happened, because they “came from a dysfunctional family system that didn’t work very well.” On The View last week, both Naomi and Wynonna tearfully admitted that they, too, had been sexually abused as very young children.

“I support Ashley,” Naomi said on the show. “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.”

Brought to you by:

Follow us @ivillagecanada and join the conversation iVillageCanada.