Country singer's husband reveals she once shot at him after discovering affair

Metro

11-05-2025

The widow of country music singer Naomi Judd has confirmed she once shot a gun at him after finding out he'd cheated.
Judd was best known for being part of the duo The Judds with her daughter Wynonna.
After forming in 1980, they went on to win five Grammy Awards and nine Country Music Association awards however stopped performing in 1991 after Naomi was diagnosed with hepatitis.
In 2022, the day before The Judds were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, she died by suicide.
A few years on her widower Larry Strickland – whom she married in 1989 – has spoken about their at-times tumultuous relationship.
This week a new documentary titled The Judd Family: Truth Be Told has been airing on the United States.
Recalling their first meeting, Strickland said it was 'almost love at first sight' however Judd once said that while they were 'wildly, madly, passionately in love', he was never home.
In her 2016 memoir, River of Time: My Descent into Depression and How I Emerged With Hope, Judd detailed how she once received a phone call from a woman who said she 'loved and missed' Strickland.
Realising her husband had been unfaithful, Judd cut up all of her photos of him and threw his belongings into their garden in trash bags.
'Oh, it was hell. I heard everything,' her daughter Ashley Judd recalled in the series. 'I heard Mum's phone calls to him on the road, I heard them fight, I heard them not fight, I heard it all.
In 1995, Judd produced a TV movie about her life called Naomi & Wynonna: Love Can Build a Bridge, which included a scene where she shot at her husband after accusing him of infidelity.
After being asked about the incident in the new documentary, Strickland added: 'Well, it really happened, that's all I can say,' Strickland said in episode 2 after watching the clip. 'That's all I wanna say. It happened.'
Despite their marriage troubles, the couple stayed together until her death.
Speaking about Judd taking her own life, Strickland said she was struggling behind the scenes.
'There was a couch, and in the latter days, she laid on that couch. She just couldn't get off of that couch,' he recalled.
'Toward the end, the last year of her life, it was just about every night she would be in a panic mode.'
When announcing Judd's death in April 2022, her daughters shared that she had died 'to the disease of mental illness'.
'Today we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness. We are shattered,' the statement read. More Trending
'We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public. We are in unknown territory.'
Judd was struggling with bipolar at the time, with her family revealing she was also grappling with post-traumatic stress.
A month later her autopsy revealed she'd died from a gunshot wound which was self-inflicted.
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