Who was Charles Jordan and what happened to him? All we know about Wynonna Judd’s father

Wynonna Judd never got a chance to meet her biological father, Charles Jordan.

The country music icon, born as Christina Claire Ciminella, is the older daughter of the late Naomi Judd, the other half of “The Judds.” It is a lesser-known fact that Wynonna, aka Christine Claire, is the daughter of Kentucky native Charles Jordan.

According to Taste of Country, Jordan was Naomi Judd's ex-boyfriend. When the An Evergreen Christmas actress was pregnant with Christine in 1964, Charles reportedly abandoned her. Naomi Judd then married Michael Ciminella, Wynonna’s adoptive father and biological father to Ashley Judd.

Like Judd’s mother, Charles Jordan was also born in Ashland, Kentucky, per his obituary on Find a Grave. Jordan was a former brakeman and conductor for CSX Railroad. He passed away in August 2000 at 55, and Wynonna got the news four days later. Initially, the cause of death was unclear, but according to Distractify, Charles Jordan died of a heart attack. He also had a biological son, Michael.

Charles Jordan died a month before he could meet Wynonna Judd

The Other Side singer was adopted by her half-sister Ashley’s father, and her mother’s ex-husband, Michael Ciminella. Wynonna didn’t know about her biological father until she was 30. She revealed about the same on Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM show Radio Andy in October 2020,

“I found out about all of this when I was pregnant with Elijah. 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 [Michael Ciminella].”

Per AmoMama. Naomi Judd reportedly wanted to reveal the truth until her older daughter became an adult. After finding out about Charles Jordan, the Revelations artist began looking for him and was able to locate him.

According to AmoMama, she was about to meet him in a month, but he unfortunately passed away in August 2000. Wynonna also discovered her half-brother, Michael, who is also from Kentucky. On Radio Andy, the country music artist told the host,

“I called him [Michael] on his birthday, and I said, 'Hi,’ and I have the recording, Andy, of me saying, 'Hi, uh, this is your sister.”

Wynonna didn’t reveal much about whether she met Michael in person. The half-siblings were born almost four years apart, with A Classic Christmas singer being the older sister.

In April 2022, Ashley and Wynonna’s mother was found dead at her home. Autopsy reports confirmed that Naomi Judd died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to her head. The Guardian reported that Judd was struggling with bipolar disorder.

After the tragic incident, Ashley and Wynonna released a joint statement via social media,

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“Today we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness. We are shattered. We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public. We are in unknown territory.”

The lives of Naomi and her daughters were also a subject of Lifetime’s recent four-part docuseries The Judd Family: Truth Be Told. The first two episodes of the documentary premiered on the channel on May 10, 2025.

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