Naomi Judd’s Family Speak Out After Completed Autopsy Report Is Released to the Public

As Naomi Judd’s autopsy report was released to the public on August 26, the Judd family shared an additional statement with the Associated Press, who first obtained the completed report.

The autopsy report confirms what the public already knew, that the country star died by suicide at the age of 76 years old on April 30. As Mamas Uncut previously reported, Judd’s passing came just one day before she and her daughter Wynonna Judd were set to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Naomi Judd’s Family Speak Out After Completed Autopsy Report Is Released to the Public

RELATED: Ashley Judd Reveals How Differently She and Her Family Have Grieved the Lost of Naomi Judd

Prior to Naomi’s death, she had openly talked about her decades-long battle with mental health and depression. In the new statement shared with the AP on Friday, her family reiterated the difficult hand Naomi was dealt.

“We have always shared openly both the joys of being family as well as its sorrows, too. One part of our story is that our matriarch was dogged by an unfair foe. She was treated for PTSD and bipolar disorder, to which millions of Americans can relate.”

As her second daughter, actress Ashley Judd shared in a previous interview, it was she who found her mother deceased from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. In addition to the firearm, the autopsy reveals that several prescription drugs were also found in Naomi’s system, including medication for post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar disorder.

Surprisingly, the release of the autopsy report comes after the family earned a courtroom win on August 2. As Mamas Uncut previously reported, a judge granted the order to seal Naomi Judd’s death records.

According to the court order filed by Naomi’s daughters, Wynonna and Ashley Judd, and her husband Larry Strickland, the family asked that the investigation into Naomi’s death remain private. As Today reported, the records that will now be sealed depicted Judd in a “graphic manner.”

Further, the family admitted that because the records contact photo and video evidence, releasing such information to the public would cause “emotional distress, pain, and mental anguish.” As Mamas Uncut reported, following Naomi’s death in April, it was determined that the legendary Country singer died by suicide just one day before she and her daughter, Wynonna, were set to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

“Moreover, the release of these records would continue to cause the entire family pain for years to come,” the filing said, according to Today. While this ruling is just temporary, an evidentiary hearing will be scheduled for September 12.

It was Ashley Judd who confirmed her mother’s cause of death while talking with ABC News in May. “My mother used a firearm, so that’s the piece of information that we are very uncomfortable sharing, but understand we’re in a position that if we don’t say it, someone else is going to.”

While talking with the Healing with David Kessler podcast, Ashley Judd added this sentiment. “My most ardent wish for my mother is that when she transitioned, she was hopefully able to let go of any guilt or shame that she carried for any shortcomings she may have had in her parenting of my sister and me. Because certainly on my end, all was forgiven long ago, all was forgiven long ago.”