Country singer Wynonna Judd has opened up about her estranged relationship with her sister, actress Ashley Judd, saying they aren’t currently “connected.”
“We’re taking a break, which all families can relate to,” the 62-year-old musician told People. “She’s doing her thing, and I’m doing mine.”
Still, Judd “absolutely” expects to reconnect with her sister in the future.
“She just travels a lot. She’s always gone,” she said. “It’s nothing specific.”
Wynonna Judd first rose to fame as half of the country duo “The Judds,” alongside her late mother, Naomi Judd. After the act disbanded in 1991, she launched a solo career.
Meanwhile, Ashley Judd is best known for her starring roles in A Time to Kill and Double Jeopardy.
The sisters—whose mother died by suicide in 2022—have long had a turbulent relationship.
In 2012, both Ashley and Naomi Judd were left off the guest list for Wynonna’s wedding to drummer Cactus Moser.
“Ashley’s probably so busy with [husband] Dario [Franchitti] having won the Indianapolis 500, she probably doesn’t even know,” Wynonna told Us Weekly at the time.
“We just don’t have a lot of contact right now, if any, because we’re all doing our own thing,” she added.
In 2022, after Naomi Judd’s death at 76, Page Six reported on a rumored rift over the singer’s will—speculation that was shut down by Wynonna, who told People, “I have such a great life. Ashley has such a great life. Why would we be fighting over the will?”
The sisters are also on different sides of the political divide. Ashley has been a long-time Democratic activist, campaigning for figures like Barack Obama, and even considering a 2014 U.S. Senate run in Kentucky before ultimately declining. While Wynonna rarely talks about politics, Rosie O’Donnell, her friend of more than 30 years, says she is the one friend in her inner circle who supports Donald Trump.
Wynonna did, however, publicly distance herself from her sister Ashley’s anti-Trump poem at the 2017 Women’s March on Washington. “I am not my sister’s keeper,” the singer said. “The end.”
In a 2025 interview, Wynonna Judd told People that she and Ashley were “not as close as I’d like to be,” saying success “took us away from each other.”
Songs on Judd’s new album draw on her childhood with her sister, she said.
“I remember the good times with Ashley, and the times we were hungry,” she told People. “We made up for it in music and fellowship and food. So we had what we needed most of the time.”
If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741
