Who is Ashley Judd’s father Michael Ciminella? All about Naomi Judd’s ex-husband as actress speaks out in documentary

Ashley Judd has opened up about her father, Michael Ciminella, in the new docuseries, The Judd Family: Truth Be Told, which throws lights on a few secrets of the family.

In the docuseries, Ashley Judd and her sister, Wynonna Judd, talk not only about Michael Ciminella, a marketing consultant, but also their mother, singer Naomi Judd, and about life growing up with their parents.

More about Michael Ciminella, as Ashley Judd talks about him in new docuseries

Michael Charles Ciminella married Naomi Judd in 1964. The couple were married for eight years, until their divorce in 1972. According to People magazine, Micheal Ciminella first met Naomi Judd after her then-boyfriend, Charles Michael Jordan, left her while she was pregnant with Wynonna. The couple would end up marrying and they welcomed their daughter, Ashley, in 1968.

In an interview with Fox News, Wynonna Judd, who was earlier known as Christina Claire Ciminella revealed she did not discover who her real biological father was untill she was in her thirties. She said:

"I was 30-years-old and I found out, you know, part of my life that I thought, you know, this man who was my biological father is not. And it’s Ashley’s father... I had to decide whether I was better or bitter."

Ashley Judd, who maintains a close relationship with her father, Michael Ciminella, suffered a terrible accident while visiting Congo. In a post, the actresss, who is known for her activism, recounted the incident on Instagram, and how he helped her through that difficult time. She said:

"My beloved Dad, who had gotten the text no parent ever wants: 'emergency, can’t answer questions, please come now,' had indeed, because he is vaccinated, been able to come to South Africa. He has been my rock, companion, resource, helped me listen to so many doctors, critical support system, and kind, loving presence as I have wept and wept."

In her memoir, All That is Bitter and Sweet, released in 2011, Ashley Judd has talked about her family and her parents' marriage. According to excerpts obtained by Today, Michael Ciminella, who was born in 1945, grew up in a small town in Eastern Kentucky. He attended Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia before enrolling at Georgia Tech, though he left after a year. Ciminella later attended Transylvania University, from where he graduated.

In her memoir, Ashley Judd has also mentioned the day her parents got married. She writes:

"On January 3, 1964, Mom and Dad were married in a sad ceremony in a Baptist church in Virginia, where nobody knew them, so shamefully regarded was the occasion. Mom borrowed a navy blue suit from her mother. The only guests in attendance were both sets of parents, who were barely on speaking terms, blaming each other’s children for ruining their dreams. The photograph from that day is one I can bear to look at only briefly; it is steeped in melancholy."

In her memoir, she has further talked about the complicated reasons her father, Michael Ciminella, and mother, Naomi Judd, were in a way forced to get married. She writes:

"They had married too young and for the “wrong” reason — namely, the unplanned pregnancy that produced my older sister, Christina (you know her as Wynonna), when Mom was only seventeen. It was a typical story of the time: high school girl becomes pregnant and “has” to marry her teen-age boyfriend."

She added:

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"But there was a twist: Michael wasn’t the father of Diana’s baby — something he didn’t know at the time of the wedding, and something my sister and I wouldn’t learn for decades. When I came into the world four years later, my family’s troubled and remarkable course had already been set in motion, powerfully shaped by my mother’s desperate teenage lie and the incredible energy she dedicated to protecting it."

Despite past troubles, the two sisters maintain a close relationship with their father, Michael Ciminella, and with each other, something they were particularly forced to mend following their mother's death in 2021 from an apparent suicide.

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