Latest news with #AshleyJudd
Daily Mail
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Harvey Weinstein admits he 'definitely made a pass' at Gwyneth Paltrow but denies assault
broke his silence from prison to insist he only 'made a pass' at Gwyneth Paltrow and 'didn't put my hands on her'. The disgraced Hollywood executive continued to claim he never assaulted the actress or committed any of the crimes of which he has been convicted. He is currently facing a retrial on multiple sex assault charges. Speaking to Candace Owens, the 73-year-old gripped the telephone close to his ear as he defiantly demanded a lie detector test in an effort to restore his reputation. 'I did not commit these crimes. I swear that before God and the people watching now and on my family,' Harvey said in the short trailer for his interview with Owens. Weinstein named several of his victims in the snippet, including Paltrow, Charmed star Rose McGowan, and actress Ashley Judd. Despite his full denial moments prior, Weinstein told Owens 'I definitely made a pass' at Paltrow. But he was adamant that nothing untoward happened. He said: 'It's a complete fabrication about my relationship with Gwyneth. I didn't put my hands on her. I didn't touch her.' Paltrow accused him of sexually harassing her in his hotel suite when she was just 22, after casting her in the lead role of the 1996 hit Emma. 'It was weird,' she said. 'I was alone in a room with him. It was out of the blue. I was blindsided. I was shocked.' McGowan claimed that Weinstein orally raped her after she was cast in Scream in 1997. Weinstein told Owens: 'I settled with Rose McGowan. I gave her $100,000, don't tell my wife, don't get me into trouble. It's all conflated, and it's all led to the idea that I'm going to be the one they persecute.' Weinstein was married to fashion designer Georgina Chapman from 2003 to 2021. She is now dating Oscar winner Adrien Brody. But Weinstein offered no concessions on Judd's claims that he sexually harassed her, telling Owens: 'Ashley Judd's claims are ridiculous.' The full episode has been released to Candace's subscribers, with a guarantee of 'explosive' revelations. Owens said that looking at Weinstein's case 'made [her] lose faith in the judicial system' and has been an outspoken supporter of his case. 'I don't think Harvey is a moral man, I just also do not believe that he is a rapist.' In total, 60 women came forward with harrowing allegations against Weinstein. He was convicted of various sex crimes in both New York and California. But he's on trial again because an appeals court found that his New York trial was tainted by prejudicial testimony and overturned that conviction. Weinstein became a symbol of sexual misconduct after media reports revealed allegations against him in 2017 and fueled the #MeToo movement. 'They broke me,' Weinstein said. 'They broke me in half.' Weinstein maintained he had steadfast supporters outside of prison who 'support me but are scared to talk'. He said: 'They are frightened to death that they're going to be canceled... I've asked to have lie detectors brought into the prison. 'I know they're not admissible, but I want the world to know.' Weinstein is currently being retried in New York after an appeals court ruled he did not receive a fair trial when he was convicted in 2020. The 73-year-old has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and maintains he never sexually assaulted or raped anyone. Defense lawyer Arthur Aidala told the primarily female jury: 'The casting couch is not a crime scene.' He compared prosecutors' allegations to the preview of a movie that 'falls flat on its face'.
The Guardian
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Ashley Judd reveals vulnerable account of last moments with mother Naomi
Ashley Judd has delivered her most complete account yet of the heart-wrenching moments during which she personally discovered her mother's suicide in 2022 – and sought to ensure her parent let go of 'her guilt and her shame' over what she had done at the conclusion of a long struggle with depression. 'I … told her how much I loved her, and it's OK to go,' the actor said on The Judd Family: Truth Be Told. The documentary miniseries – having aired on Lifetime over Mother's Day weekend and now available on the Philo streaming service – in part zoomed in on Grammy-winning country singer Naomi Judd's final day, which began with a text message from her to Ashley reading: 'pls help.' As Ashley recounted on the docuseries, she subsequently arrived at her mother's home near Nashville and found 76-year-old Naomi 'uncomfortable in her body' – pacing around her kitchen while saying that she 'didn't want to be here any more'. The Double Jeopardy and Kiss the Girls star recalled: 'I put my hand on her leg and she patted me and she slowly softened and came back to herself and calmed down and shared a couple of things I would say are private, between us, about why she chose to continue to live' in spite of her lengthy history of anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder. 'One of the things she said was me, and I said: 'You don't have to worry about me, Mom. I'm OK. I'm OK.' And she really clocked that in a really deep way.' Naomi then went upstairs. Ashley said she later followed to check on her mother and 'saw that she had harmed herself'. 'I spent the next whatever it was – half-hour – just holding my mother and talking to her,' Ashley said on the program. 'And the first thing I said to her was: 'It's OK, I've seen how much you've been suffering.' 'And we just breathed together, and I talked to her and told her how much I loved her, and it's OK to go.' Ashley continued: 'When she died, my earnest wish was to make sure that she was relieved and absolved of her guilt and her shame. I was holding her hand. I was kissing her. She was so soft. She smelled so pretty. 'It was like this final consummation of the love in the relationship that we had transformed. What an honor, to be born in this human life, to be chosen by her. I got to hold space – I got to bookend. And I'm just so glad I was there.' Ashley Judd spoke to the Guardian in early 2023 about undergoing a physically and mentally taxing type of psychotherapy known as EMDR – which involves patients moving their eyes in a specific way while they process traumatic memories – as she grappled with the aftermath of her mother's death. She said her treatment was made more complicated than it otherwise could have been by the fact that a tabloid published graphic photographs depicting the scene of Naomi's death. The outlet also ran a photo of a Post-it note at the scene suggesting that Naomi's other daughter – fellow country singer Wynonna, Ashley's sister – would not be allowed at the funeral, though she ultimately did attend. Those pieces violated standards on how to safely and responsibly report on deaths like that of Naomi, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention said at the time. Nonetheless, the tabloid ran that material after outlets obtained it through public records requests issued to the first responders who were called out to the site of Naomi's death. Naomi Judd's daughters and her widower, the former Elvis Presley-backing vocalist Larry Strickland, later pushed for Tennessee's state legislature to limit what authorities should have to release in non-criminal deaths. The restrictions they proposed were relatively similar to ones in place in California and Florida, which are generally considered to be public records-friendly. A statement on Tuesday from Judd family representatives said that effort 'effectively died' after the legislature's attention became occupied by a shooting that killed three nine-year-old children and three adults at Nashville's Covenant school in March 2023. The attacker who carried out the slayings at the school was killed by police, too. Born Diana Ellen Judd in Ashland, Kentucky, Naomi Judd was working as a nurse before she and Wynonna began to sing together. Their blending of acoustic music, bluegrass and blues earned them a devoted following. And it also propelled the duo to 14 No 1 hits and five Grammy wins over nearly three decades performing. Unfortunately for her, in 1991, at the peak of her and Wynonna's popularity, Naomi Judd was diagnosed with hepatitis. She said she was forced to stop performing, and her mental state deteriorated significantly before dying one day away from being inducted alongside Wynonna into the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. 'Our matriarch was dogged by an unfair foe,' the Judd family had previously said in a statement. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988, chat on or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@ or jo@ In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at
Daily Mail
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Ashley Judd details how her mom Naomi 'invalidated' her horrific rape at age 14
Ashley Judd detailed the shocking way her mother, Naomi Judd, reacted to finding out she was raped multiple times as a teenager while modeling in Tokyo, Japan. While appearing on Lifetime's two-night docuseries The Judd Family: Truth Be Told, the actress, 57, opened up about her traumatic experience living as an 'unescorted minor' living by herself in an apartment in Asia. 'When I landed, the modeling agency folks took me to the modeling agency and said, "Take off all your clothes and walk around." I was 14 years old — it was a summer of commercial sexual exploitation,' she recalled. Ashley continued: 'The head of the agency molested me for the entire summer, a man raped me twice, another model sexually assaulted me. They just consumed my body.' At one point, she remembered writing in her diary: 'I wanted my teddy bear, I wanted to go to homecoming.' After returning to her family home in Tennessee, her journal entry prompted an intense conversation with Naomi, who Ashley claimed 'always went through' her things. 'She found my diary and read it,' Ashley said. 'In there, I talked about the times this French guy raped me twice. And [Naomi] got in my sleeping bag and said, "I read about you and your boyfriend."' Ashley said her accusatory tone was hurtful and made her 'invalidated and denied' her trauma and reality. 'I was a little girl, I was not a participant, I was a victim,' Ashley explained. 'And mom and I had a lot of these conversations later in life and her understanding of sexual assault and rape was not the perspective to which she grew and evolved — but she didn't have that information and perspective. So, her reaction was to sneer at me. I was shut down.' Ashley, however, pointed out that this would be a 'would be a very painful lament' for Naomi, who died by suicide in 2022. Ashley did go on to praise her mother for supporting her while accusing disgraced movie mogul, Harvey Weinstein, of sexual harassment and misconduct. While reflecting on her decision to be named as a source in The New York Times' 2017 exposé against Weinstein, Ashley said her mom told her to 'go get him.' 'She was not fond of Harvey — she called him a not-so-nice word — she called him a pig or something,' Ashley said of her late mom. In 2018, Ashley was among the first to publicly come forward with allegations against Weinstein, which helped to launch the #MeToo movement. Her claim was ultimately dismissed by a California court and Weinstein has consistently denied Ashley's allegations. Back in 2015, Ashley spoke out about being a 'survivor of sexual assault, rape and incest' on X (previously known as Twitter). 'I was sexually abused the first time [when] I was in the second grade and I'm teller. Ha, Harvey knows that,' she said in 2017 at the 11th Annual HOPE Luncheon Seminar. She continued: 'I went straight to some adults and I said, you know, this just happened, this guy molested me and the adults said, "Oh, that's not what he meant, he's a nice old guy."' Ashley described herself as a 'three-time rape survivor' in 2019 and revealed that one of her rapes resulted in conception. 'I'm very thankful I was able to access safe and legal abortion because that rapist, who's a Kentuckian – as am I, and I reside in Tennessee – has paternity rights in Kentucky and Tennessee. I would've had to co-parent with a rapist,' she said at the Women in the World Summit in 2019. In her 2011 memoir, All That Is Bitter and Sweet, she said 'things happened to' her as a kid that she 'never spoke' about, even to her mom or Wynonna. During her childhood, Ashley attended 13 schools and struggled with depression and loneliness as her mom and sister traveled the world as one of the most commercially successful duo in the history of country music.
Fox News
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Wynonna Judd wishes bond with mom was like their music, but 'there was a lot of dysfunction'
Editor's note: This story discusses suicide and sexual assault. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The National Sexual Assault Hotline is 1-800-656-4673. Wynonna and Ashley Judd admitted in a new docuseries they had a complicated relationship with their late mom, Naomi Judd, who also dealt with her own trauma on her road to success. In the A&E docuseries "The Judd Family: Truth Be Told," the sisters opened up in the first three episodes about growing up with a young mom, the abuse they experienced from one of their mother's exes when they were children, leaving Los Angeles behind to move home to Kentucky and how Wynonna and Naomi found and dealt with superstardom in country music. "I've loved her more than I've loved myself, but mother was both in love with me and terrified of me because I represented what she didn't know and couldn't control," Wynonna said at the beginning of the docuseries. Wynonna said she believes her mother's suicide was partly to blame on "generational trauma" her mother experienced. "One of the reasons I have decided that Mom left this world is because of trauma, generational trauma, family stuff that never got healed or fixed," Wynonna said in the first episode of the show. Growing up, Naomi Judd had a judgmental mother, her younger brother died of Hodgkin lymphoma as a child, and she was a teen mom when she gave birth to Wynonna. Wynonna called the closeness with her mother a "blessing and a burden" because she felt "responsible for making her feel better." "As a child, she did not get what she needed," Wynonna said. "That is a fact." But she admitted that she was "not allowed to be a child" growing up. "I was the adult," Wynonna said of her relationship with her mother. Ashley added that their mother lived with a "constellation of her sufferings" that spiraled into severe depression before her death. "I've loved her more than I've loved myself, but mother was both in love with me and terrified of me because I represented what she didn't know and couldn't control." Wynonna said, from a young age, Naomi was always looking for approval from her own mother, who judged her for loving an audience as a kid, which Ashley said continued into her professional music career. "It wasn't about ego and grandiosity and self-importance," Ashley revealed. "It was actually something much more humble than that. It was about basic self-worth." Naomi died by suicide in April 2022. After splitting from their father, their mother met a man who Wynonna described as "creepy," Ashley and Wynonna said. "Mom had a really, really not healthy boyfriend," she explained. "She saw him as James Dean. The reality was he's not James Dean. He's a guy who's creepy. "I was old enough to know that something was wrong. I just remember being very, very aware of this man watching us in the bathtub, and, you know, laying on top of me while I was watching television." Wynonna said their mother often wasn't home, and she became "incredibly, incredibly protective of Ashley." Ashley said one time the live-in boyfriend discovered the girls had written on the walls, "and he hung me out the bedroom window by my ankles." Naomi wrote in her memoir about how he moved to an apartment across the street from them after she broke up with him so he could stalk her. One night, she said, she discovered someone was inside her house. When she went inside, her ex grabbed her in a jealous rage, demanding to know if she'd been with another man. "As he was raping me, I prayed he wouldn't kill me because my kids needed me," she wrote. Ashley said she felt "abandoned" by her parents as a child, adding that everyone thought she was a "very capable child" and so "nobody needed to take care of me." Naomi's widower, Larry Strickland said that while he was on the road touring with Naomi and Wynonna, Ashley was left alone. "Ashley, I'm sure, felt left behind. You know, she suffered, she suffered because of that. It changed her," Strickland said in the docuseries. She moved in with her father in her junior year of high school, but she said he wasn't home much and was using drugs as well. "My hunch is the justification for abandoning me came from this belief that I was this very capable child … so nobody needed to take care of me. And both of my parents had those beliefs," Ashley said. She also remembered dealing with chickenpox by herself in a motel room when she was a young girl. "Mom was working and then going out at night, so I was in this strange place with the chickenpox. I just slept all the time," Ashley said. Naomi had moved with the girls back to Kentucky at that time, but she was still struggling with nine-to-five jobs, before she and Wynonna found musical success. "That was a bout of childhood depression," Ashley said, referring to a disease she would continue to battle, much of the time unnoticed. "I would just watch the commercials and get out the cleaning products that were advertised and just copy what I saw on television," Ashley remembered of taking care of herself at the motel. When she was 14 years old, Ashley was sent to model in Japan, where she said she was raped twice. She said that when her mom later found out from Ashley's diary about the assault, Naomi "sneered" at the idea, referring to the man who raped her as her "boyfriend." "But I was a little girl. I was not a participant. I was a victim. There's no such thing as consent, and Mom and I had a lot of these conversations later in life," Ashley said. "And her understanding of sexual assault and rape was not the perspective into which she grew and evolved. She just didn't have that information and perspective. "So, her reaction was to sneer at me. I was shut down. My own experience and reality invalidated and denied, which in her heart today would be a very painful lament." "One of the reasons I have decided that mom left this world is because of trauma, generational trauma, family stuff that never got healed or fixed." But she added that her experience of her mother is a "description not an indictment. Everyone was doing the best they could." Dan Potter, musical director for the Judds, said he understood why Wynonna struggled with her weight in her singing career. "She was wanting to not be attractive," he told the producers of the documentary. "Things happened to her that caused her to not want to be attractive." "I was molested at 12, so my whole sexuality thing was really stamped out because I, just at 12, really shut down," Wynonna revealed. "So, I carried the weight, literally and figuratively." Her weight, which she said she put on because food became a "soother" to her like drugs or alcohol, became an issue after she and her mom found success as a country duo. "Mom was very hard on me," she said, "because she was terrified of losing me, of course, but she never would say it that way. It was always, 'Well, if you lost 20 pounds, you'd be a pop star.' I remember that conversation very well." Wynonna noted it was the same kind of thing her grandmother said to her mom growing up. "That's why I would get so angry because I knew it was being passed down," she added. She said her mother's sexuality on stage when they performed together "so aggravated" her. "She was 36 years old. She was ready to be fire," Wynonna laughed. "As kids would say today, she had drip. She was foxy and ready to rumble. Man, she had the modes down, but then I was so aggravated by her sexuality." She added that she wished her bond with her mom could have been harmonious like their music, but "there was a lot of dysfunction." Strickland, who is also a musician, admitted in the docuseries he was "jealous as crap" of Naomi's success early on in her career. Naomi wrote in her memoir that after she found out that their song "Mama He's Crazy" was No. 1, Strickland stood up and walked out the door. "I was jealous as crap of her, you know," the 76-year-old admitted of his late wife, "so we just kind of fell apart a little bit." Naomi described in a 1987 interview played in the docuseries that Strickland "left me" when he found out that "Mama He's Crazy" had gone No. 1. "But we're back together now." Naomi wrote in her memoir that she met Strickland in 1979 when his gospel group, The Stamps Quartet, walked into the building where she was a secretary in Nashville. The group had toured with Elvis Presley for the last three years of his life. "I mean, it was almost a love at first sight kind of thing," Strickland said of Naomi in the docuseries. He said they didn't have any money at that time, and he'd started his own band, Memphis, which toured around the country playing clubs. "I was trying to find my way," he said. "Naomi, she was the breadwinner. We were dirt poor. It was trying times, very trying times." Strickland said Naomi would work during the night at her new job as a nurse, and she would knock on doors on Nashville's Music Row during the day. "So, she was doing it all," he said. "Only a handful of people make it through [into the industry]," he added. After years of hard work, Naomi and Wynonna got their big break after meeting Nashville producer Brent Maher at her nursing job and signing with RCA Records in 1983. "If you can imagine all of those years of Naomi fighting the fight, all of the meetings, all of the 'no's, it had to be staggering," Maher said of when they signed with RCA. Naomi wrote in her memoir that, one night, while she and Wynonna were on the road, Strickland called long distance. "He wanted to change his life," she wrote of Strickland. "'I'm getting off the road. I love you, so I'm asking you to marry me. What's your answer?'" "I was just being funny, but I said, 'How would you like to be buried with my people?'" Strickland told the producers of the docuseries. "That's an old saying." Naomi wrote in her memoir of that time, "We'd had the greatest year of our entire lives, not only professionally but personally as well." Strickland and Naomi wed in 1989 and remained married until her death in 2022.
Associated Press
11-02-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
THE COUNTDOWN TO NAWBO'S 50TH ANNIVERSARY EVENT IS ON!
The Strongest Voice and Supporter of U.S. Women Entrepreneurs Is Headed Back to DC—With Ashley Judd and Cynt Marshall as Keynotes—to Celebrate a Major Milestone WASHINGTON, Feb. 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The latest data shows that America's 14 million women entrepreneurs are a leading contributor to today's economy and have a strong outlook for the future. This optimism continues to fuel the National Association of Women Business Owners ' (NAWBO®) mission to propel women entrepreneurs into economic, social and political spheres of power worldwide as it heads back to Washington, DC—where it was founded 50 years ago—to celebrate its milestone anniversary. NAWBO's 50th anniversary event will be held June 5-8, 2025 at DC's Omni Shoreham Hotel. It will bring together members and non-members—of all ages, sizes, stages and industries—as well as partners, supporters and international guests to celebrate 50 years of connections, education, leadership and bipartisan advocacy wins and set the stage for the future. The event includes Advocacy Day (June 5), Membership Meeting, Leader Onboarding & Afternoon Sessions (June 6) and the National Women's Business Conference & Awards Gala (June 7-8). NAWBO is thrilled to announce two remarkable keynote speakers who will be headlining this year's conference: Actress and Social Justice Humanitarian Ashley Judd knows what it's like to want to make the world a better place and to use her voice to help make small yet meaningful changes that amount to significant change over time. She'll share what's possible when you use your voice for good. Also, Entrepreneur, Former Dallas Mavericks CEO and Author Cynthia 'Cynt' Marshall will inspire with her visionary leadership and powerful story of achieving business results through inclusion and a relentless focus on people and operational excellence. Other well-known industry experts will speak on topics like: • Marketing to the next generation of buyers • Selling on the world's largest online retail platform • Unlocking financial capital for growth • Maximizing tax deductions to minimize stress • And much more! 'Once you come and meet NAWBO's members and partners and experience what a NAWBO national conference is like, you don't ever turn back,' says NAWBO National Board Chair Dr. Janis Shinkawa. 'Whether you are just starting your business, in the middle of it or thinking about your exit strategy, we have programming for every stage of every business.' Early Bird tickets (a $100 savings) are available to members and non-members through March 31st. Register to join us as an attendee, exhibitor and/or advertiser. For questions about event sponsorship, please reach out to [email protected]. About NAWBO Founded in 1975, NAWBO is the unified voice of America's more than 14 million women-owned businesses representing the fastest growing segment of the economy. NAWBO is the only dues-based organization representing the interests of all women entrepreneurs across all industries. NAWBO develops programs that help navigate women entrepreneurs through the various stages of their business growth. To learn more, please visit
