Wynonna Judd is preparing for part two of her tour, The Judds: The Final Tour, as the first show kicks off tonight in Hershey, PA. Since the passing of her mother, Naomi, the singer-daughter has had to go through many rearrangements both in her personal and professional life; between postponing the tour, finding new tourmates, and figuring out the rights to the estate her mother left behind. Most importantly, though – and possibly a silver lining in the scheme of things – reconnecting with her sister Ashley.
Ashley and Wynonna are half sisters, sharing the same mother. Prior to Naomi’s death, the sisters were estranged from each other, going as far back as when Wynonna was 18 and began her music career. The estrangement proceeded through the years, with neither Ashley nor Naomi being in attendance at Wynonna’s wedding to her current husband, Cactus Moser, in 2012.
But in April, Naomi’s death brought the sisters together once again, aiming to put aside any disagreements and be there for each other. Wynonna especially wanted it to work out seeing as Ashley is her only family left.
“I feel like we’re connected in a way that is so different because I’m an orphan,” Wynonna told People in October. “Both my parents are gone, and I’m relying on Ashley. She’s relying on me in a different way that’s about compassion. It’s not about being successful and smart and capable. It’s about, ‘I love you.’ ‘I love you, too.’ We’re vulnerable with each other, and we’re tender.
“As sisters, we disagree on so much,” she continues. “But when it comes to our mother, we both look at each other and go, ‘She was quite the character.’”
In October, rumors were going around that Wy and Ashley were fighting over Naomi’s decision to leave them both out of the will, leaving everything to her husband, Larry Strickland. Wynonna shut down these rumors as soon as she heard them, which was while she was at her sister’s home.
“I am the last person in this family — and if Ashley was here, I’d hope she’d agree with me — who knows stuff like this. I’m not savvy enough to go, ‘I’m going to contest the will.’ It never occurred to me.”
Wynonna and Ashley utilized tools presented by their life coach in order to help them reconnect and come together in their time of grief.
“We had one of the most difficult conversations we’ve ever had,” she told ET. “And we got through it. And nobody was hurt. And I thought it’s a remarkable thing to have someone in your life that you’re so different from but that you can meet somewhere in the middle about.
“That’s what peace talk is,” she added, “and that’s what we’re doing, and it works. When you work it and you’re worth it.”
The tools her life coach gave them were, “communication, compromise, and compassion.”
“In my disagreements with Ashley and Mom, I never gave up loving them,” she said of using what her life coach taught her, “because I knew behind all that, there was someplace to meet and connect upon. I tell people: Try to find something that you have in common. Ashley and I, when it all goes to hell, can play cards and get along.”
Upon their stepfather’s passing, the sisters will split everything detailed in Naomi’s will.
Sources:
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/wynonna-judd-shares-mom-naomi-204211270.html
https://www.etonline.com/wynonna-judd-reacts-to-death-of-friend-lisa-marie-presley-exclusive-197782
