Ashley Judd and Anderson Cooper break down in tears over loved ones who died by suicide
Anderson Cooper and Ashley Judd got emotional while discussing their family members who died by suicide.
The actress was a guest on CNN’s “All There is with Anderson Cooper,” Wednesday, where they discussed the death of her mother, country star Naomi Judd, who died by suicide in 2022 at age 76.
The interview prompted Cooper, 56, to speak about the death of his brother, Carter who died by suicide at age 23 in 1988, causing him to nearly break down in tears.
“I’m here Anderson,” Judd intoned softly as Cooper stifled back crying.
“One of the things that I’ve found so hard about losing my brother to suicide is I get stuck in how his life ended and my shock over it and my realization that I didn’t really know him,” he said shakily.
Carter plunged to his death after jumping out the window of their mother Gloria Vanderbilt’s Upper East Side apartment while Vanderbilt was home.
Judd, 55, called her mother’s death simultaneously, “traumatic and unexpected because it was death by suicide and I found her.”
Naomi had long been open about her mental health struggles. During an interview on “Good Morning America” in 2016, the singer said she had been facing “extreme” and “severe depression” that forced her into reclusion.
Despite the shock of discovering her mother’s body, Judd says that she was “so glad” to be there.
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“Even when I walked in that room and I saw that she had harmed herself, the first thing out of my mouth was, ‘Momma, I see how much you’ve been suffering and it is OK… I am here, and it is OK to let go.’”
Judd believes that her mother “is now in the vastness of consciousness in the mind of God. What a great place to be.
“All of these mysteries which just made her daydream are now where her spirit resides.”
The humanitarian advocate also reminisced about her mother always getting up to greet her, even if the country singer was in the depths of depression.
“Invariably, she got up. No matter how sick she was,” Judd recalled. “And she would light up. And she would come to the back door and open it. And she would exclaim, ‘There’s my darling, there’s my girl, there’s my baby!’ And that’s how I see my mom.”
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or text Crisis Text Line at 741741.
