5 Revelations From “The Judd Family: Truth Be Told” Documentary

The Judd Family: Truth Be Told, a four-episode documentary about the Judds, premiered Saturday (May 10) and provided a glimpse into the lives of Larry Strickland, Ashley, and Wynonna Judd following Naomi’s tragic death.

Noami Judd died by suicide in April 2022. In the years before her death, she had candidly shared her battle with depression. And before that, she and Wynonna had been open about the struggles they faced as the most successful mother-daughter duo in country music.

The Judds granted many interviews over the course of their career and were the subject of a docuseries in 2011. But there were topics that Naomi Judd’s family refused to talk about while she was alive.

In the new documentary about their lives, The Judd Family: Truth Be Told, Naomi’s widower, Larry Strickland, and daughters Ashley and Wynonna, share a deeper look into her complicated upbringing and the demons she faced throughout her life. While Wynonna, Naomi, and Ashley were open about their struggles in the past, the documentary revealed some new details that fans have never been told.

Below are some of the biggest bombshells and interesting facts from The Judd Family: Truth Be Told.

Naomi loved being in the spotlight, but it had nothing to do with ego.

“It wasn’t about ego and grandiosity and self-importance. It was actually something more humble than that. It was about basic self-worth. There was a validation to her very existence that she received when people acknowledged her,” daughter Ashley revealed.

Later on in the documentary, Naomi’s family shared that she actually didn’t feel like she had much talent and compensated by focusing on her appearance. “I became Elvis and she became Dolly,” Wynonna said.

Naomi Judd once shot a gun at her husband after finding out he had cheated on her.

In the documentary, Larry Strickland is shown a scene from a 1995 biopic about The Judds. The scene shows Naomi answering a phone call from a woman who says that he loves and misses Larry. Naomi gets angry and confronts her husband, eventually turning a gun on him and narrowly missing him.

When asked about the truth of the scene, Strickland only says, “Well, it really happened. That’s all I can say. That’s all I want to say. It happened.”

Wynonna blames her mom’s death on unresolved family issues and trauma from Naomi’s childhood.

Naomi got pregnant with Wynonna as an unmarried teenager, something her parents frowned upon. Naomi returned home from school one day to find the house’s front door locked. Her parents didn’t talk to her until Wynonna was born, but their relationship was never healthy.

Naomi’s brother, Christopher, shared in the documentary that his mom was extremely hard on the kids, and Naomi always felt like she was a disappointment. After The Judds rose to fame, Naomi’s mom liked to boast about their success and wanted to take credit for it. But Christopher never saw his mom hug Naomi or show her any kind of approval, even as an adult.

Her childhood trauma, combined with failed relationships and her intense desire to be famous, put an incredible amount of pressure on Naomi, which she projected onto Wynonna.

Naomi liked to “embellish their biography.”

According to The Judds’ manager, Naomi lied about details of their life.

“Each time she would go to a radio station or do a newspaper interview, it was just so hard for her to not embellish their biography – Where they had stayed. Was it in a real cabin without electricity … each time the story changed and became enhanced.”

An interview clip is shown as an example. In the clip, Naomi says she still doesn’t own a toaster, a mixer, or a dishwasher. Wynonna doesn’t try to hide her feelings about the statement and gives her mom a look that says “I know the truth.”

“I think mom knew that I had her number. There was part of me that would look at her and go, really? I had to go through media training. I was trained how to not roll my eyes,” Wynonna said, adding that she didn’t answer a lot of interview questions because her mom would always embellish the story.

“Mom is the most colorful character in the story. She was always the one that got quoted in the news,” said Wynonna.

Wynonna was a victim of abuse.

Wynonna admitted to being a victim of abuse at age 12 – an event that caused her to want to appear unattractive and avoid drawing unwanted attention to herself.

“I mean, if you look at the clothes of The Judds, my clothes are up to here and here, like Amish. I’m Amish, basically. I’m wearing clothes to cover, not expose — to this day,” Wynonna admitted. Food became her security blanket, but it further exacerbated the tension between her and Naomi.

According to their longtime producer, Don Potter, Naomi felt Wynonna’s weight reflected poorly on the group. Wynonna added that her mom would tell her that she could be a pop star if she lost 20 pounds.

“They would lock themselves in the back of the bus, screaming and yelling at each other,” he said. “Several times we had to cancel shows because Wynonna had stripped her voice.”

OTHER NOTABLE MOMENTS FROM THE DOCUMENTARY:

*Naomi Judd’s husband, Larry Strickland, hears her sing solo for the first time.
*Ashley Judd details her last conversation with her mom and the moment she saw that her mom “had harmed herself.”
*Wynonna reveals why she distanced herself from her mother in 2011.
*Wynonna shares how she learned that the man she thought was her father wasn’t.

Should fans of the Judds watch The Judd Family: Truth Be Told?

Diehard fans of the mother-daughter duo likely won’t be too surprised by much of what Wynonna, Ashley, and Larry share. But the family and production team framed the story in a way that respected Naomi’s legacy and the empire she built with Wynonna, while also explaining what ultimately led Naomi to take her own life.

Those who have seen the documentary agree…it only made us love Wynonna and Naomi more. It also left viewers with a deep appreciation for the candor in which the family spoke about their heartache and their love for each other, something most families can relate to.

See the official trailer for The Judd Family: Truth Be Told below. The documentary can be watched on Lifetime via any streaming service or on YouTube Premium and Apple TV.