Wynonna Judd Still Tormented By Mom Naomi’s Shocking Suicide: ‘It Will Never Leave Her,’ Says Source

Wynonna Judd is back on the road, but it’s been a bumpy ride, a source says, because the “Have Mercy” singer is still haunted by her mother’s tragic suicide.

Naomi Judd took her own life in April 2022 at age 76 after a long struggle with depression accompanied by anxiety, panic attacks and suicidal ideation. She allegedly left behind a note in which she called Wynonna mentally ill and asked that she not be allowed to attend the funeral. “That must be hard for Wynonna to shake,” says the source. “Why would her mother write that?”

Naomi was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to her head at her home in Leiper’s Fork, Tenn. “The pain of losing Mom to suicide is so great, that I often feel like I’m not ever going to be able to fully accept that she left the way she did,” Wynonna shared on social media afterward.

In October 2022, the singer opened up some more, saying to People, “I can’t quite wrap my head around it, and I don’t know that I ever will. That she left the way she did. That’s how baffling and cunning mental illness is. You have to make peace with the fact that you don’t know. Sometimes there are no answers.”

More than three years have passed since her mother’s death, but it’s still so fresh. “It will never leave her,” believes the source. “And thank God for the tour. It may be difficult at times, but performing is what Wynonna loves to do. It’s nice to have the sunlight shining in again.”