How did Naomi Judd get hepatitis? Ashley Judd recalls late mother was devastated by 1990 diagnosis

The Judd Family: Truth Be Told by Lifetime offered a closer look at Naomi Judd and her daughters Wynonna and Ashley's complex lives.

The four-part docuseries also explored the later country music icon’s health struggles and her hepatitis C diagnosis in 1990. Ashley Judd recounted how her mother was left devastated after finding out about the infection. The Double Jeopardy actress recalled during her interview in The Judd Family: Truth Be Told by Lifetime,

“It [getting diagnosed with hepatitis C] was very crushing for her.”

Naomi and Wynonna – The Judds – were at the height of their fame when the former was diagnosed with the disease. According to Today.com, the doctors reportedly said the singer-actress had three years to live. Naomi Judd, who became the national spokesperson for the American Liver Foundation (ALF), had contracted the infection due to a needle stick injury when she was a nurse.

According to ALF, the Family Tree actress helped raise awareness around hepatitis. She contributed to decreasing the negative stigma and victim blaming that was linked with the disease in that era. Here’s what Alan P. Brownstein, former ALF CEO/president, said about Naomi Judd for her work as the national spokesperson,

“I met Naomi in 1995 shortly after I became the CEO/President of the American Liver Foundation. [...] I witnessed firsthand what Naomi contributed in the fight against hepatitis and liver diseases. While a number of celebrities affected by liver diseases contributed in many ways, Naomi was a standout – she was my hero.”

Hep C took a toll on the six-time Grammy winner’s physical and mental health, but she eventually recovered against the odds.

Naomi Judd’s hepatitis C was in remission by the mid-’90s

Wynonna’s mother’s Hep C diagnosis led to the breakup of their country music duo in 1991. Naomi’s health deteriorated during the early ‘90s, something which her older daughter recounted during an interview in The Judd Family: Truth Be Told.

“It was heavy, because I was watching her say goodbye every night. And every night we’re going on stage, and I knew she was getting closer and closer to the end of the tour. The bus, the clothes, the shows — that was her world. So I just knew she would go into some sort of psychosis, because that was like the lifeline was being unplugged.”

Wynonna remembered how she was afraid that her mother’s life would also end once the tour concluded. Talking about her mother’s mental health concerns, the Country Music Hall of Famer said,

“I just knew in my heart of hearts… that she would probably kill herself.”

Naomi Judd’s widowed husband, Larry Strickland, also reflected upon her mental and physical health when she was suffering from hepatitis C.

“I think Naomi was exhilarated [by her daughters' success] and sad at the same time, because I knew she wanted to be up there, to be on that stage.”

He continued,

“That’s really when the depression kicked in. She called her doctor and told him that she was gonna have to quit taking the shots, but he’d just gotten some new test results and he said, ‘Naomi, do not stop the shots. Your counts are going down.’ Miraculously, the interferon actually worked for her.”

Naomi, whose hep C was in remission by 1995, publicly announced it through a 1998 Chicago Times interview, sharing how she was “cured” after getting treated with interferon-alpha. In 2017, during an interview for a KMOV TV special, Naomi Judd talked about her illness,

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“Once, I was actually diagnosed with it and told I had three years to live, I was furious. But I was going to fight. I had to retire, which absolutely broke my heart and changed my life forever. I became very depressed and started having anxiety disorder.”

During the chat, she recounted her meeting with Dr. Bruce Bacon and how he treated her like a regular patient, despite her celebrity status, until her hepatitis C was in remission. Naomi Judd remembered that it was Ashley whom she called after getting the optimistic news.

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