Ashley Judd said her late mother, Naomi Judd, once “threatened to stop paying” her college tuition because of a lesbian professor.
“She didn’t like what I was learning,” Ashley told former Christ Church Nashville pastor Dan Scott during the premiere episode of their new podcast, “A Table Prepared,” which debuted Friday.
“She didn’t like [that] I had a lesbian theologian professor who was taking me through Hebrew scripture and examining the women listed as property after the donkeys,” the 58-year-old actress continued.
Ashley also alleged that Naomi felt pressured to remain politically aligned with the country music industry because she feared “disapproval and retaliation.” Naomi died by suicide in April 2022.
At home, however, Ashley said her mother was more comfortable expressing her political views, “especially” when speaking with her daughter.
“She could share all kinds of political and social views that would surprise people if they thought Naomi Judd thought, felt or said that,” Ashley recalled.
Ashley said Naomi, who faced significant mental health challenges before fatally shooting herself, had “a lot of compassion” for women who made headlines after harming their children.
“She would say they need help, not punishment,” Ashley said, while acknowledging that she was uncertain whether Naomi “would have been comfortable in her lifetime saying that.”
Ashley acknowledged that she had wrestled with whether it was appropriate to share those views after her mother’s death. “I’ve debated with myself, is it okay for me to say that posthumously and attribute it to her? I’m still in relationship with my mother, and so I’ve asked her these things. I was up the other morning … and the part of my mother that lives in me said, ‘Honey, I told stories. You tell the truth.’”
In that moment, Ashley said she felt her mother had “passed [the] baton.”
During another part of the episode, Ashley thanked her co-host for remaining close to Naomi during the country singer’s final years.
“A couple of times, close to the end of her life, when she was in and out of the hospital for various reasons, you would be one of the people I would call, and you always faithfully showed up,” Ashley said. “She would be so delighted to see you.”
The “High Crimes” star was the person who discovered Naomi after the Grammy Award winner died at age 76 in her Tennessee home.
In the 2025 docuseries “Judd Family: Truth Be Told,” Ashley said she held her mother and spoke to her before her death. “It’s OK, it’s OK. I’ve seen how much you’ve been suffering,” she recalled telling Naomi.