Wynonna Judd is being unusually direct about where things stand with her younger sister, Ashley Judd. The country star says the two are not especially close right now and are giving each other some space.
“We’re taking a break, which all families can relate to,” Wynonna told PEOPLE. She said Ashley is “doing her thing” while she does hers and added that the actress has not yet heard Wynonna’s deeply personal new album, The Hard Truth.
She said Ashley travels frequently, called the situation “nothing specific” and said she believes the sisters will “absolutely” find their way back to one another.
The Hard Truth, out October 2, turns directly toward family history that Wynonna has spent years trying to process. Her official website describes the record as her most personal collection yet, built around “grit, grace and hard-won wisdom.”
Their Complicated Dynamic Goes Back to Childhood
During a 2025 appearance on Talking in Circles With Clint Black, Wynonna said success had taken the sisters in different directions and admitted that she did not see Ashley as often as she wanted.
Taste of Country reported that Wynonna also connected their adult relationship to the role she took on when they were young. With Naomi working and raising the girls as a single mother, Wynonna said she often functioned more like a caretaker than a sibling, leading Ashley to call her “sister mommy.”
Wynonna said that history left her with mixed feelings because she had wanted the chance simply to be Ashley’s sister. The two later built very different public lives, with Wynonna entering country music alongside Naomi while Ashley established an acting career.
Naomi’s Death Pulled the Sisters Closer for a Time
The relationship shifted after Naomi died by suicide in April 2022. Wynonna and Ashley appeared together the following day as The Judds were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, sharing the stage while grieving a loss that had occurred only hours earlier.
Naomi’s widower, Larry Strickland, later told PEOPLE that the tragedy “forced” the family together. He said losing Naomi made everyone confront how brief life could be and required Wynonna and Ashley to spend more time together whether they had planned to or not. That period also produced speculation about the sisters fighting over Naomi’s estate, which Wynonna publicly rejected.
‘The Hard Truth’ Goes Much Deeper Than the Sisters’ Current Distance
Wynonna’s new album reaches into several other parts of her family history. In a separate PEOPLE interview, she described the record as her most vulnerable work and discussed the complicated feelings she still carries toward Naomi, including anger over learning later in life that the man she believed was her father was not her biological parent.
The album also reflects Wynonna’s painful estrangement from her daughter Grace Kelley, whose addiction and legal problems have remained a source of distress. Wynonna and husband Cactus Moser are raising Grace’s young daughter Kaliyah, while Wynonna has said she still hopes for healing in her relationship with Grace.