Wynonna and Ashley Judd ‘left out’ of mother Naomi’s will

Husband Larry Stickland will have ‘full authority and discretion’ over singer’s property

Late country singer Naomi Judd did not include her daughters, Wynonna and Ashley Judd, in her last will, according to reports in the US media.

Judd, who had long suffered from depression, died by suicide on 30 April.

In her will, which was prepared in November 2017, Judd appointed her husband, Larry Strickland, as the executor of her estate.

According to documents seen by Page Six, Strickland – whom she married in 1989 – will have “full authority and discretion” over any property that is an asset to her estate “without the approval of any court” or permission from any beneficiary.

Judd also ensured that Strickland should receive “reasonable compensation” for his services, and that he should be reimbursed for “reasonable expenses, advances and disbursements, including attorney’s and accountant’s fees, made or incurred in the administration of my estate”.

Two witnesses, including a senior account manager at a Tennessee law firm, Wiatr & Associates, vouched that Judd was of “sound mind, memory and understand, and not under any restraint or in any in any respect incompetent to make a Last Will and Testament.”

Judd also asked that in the event Strickland could not be the executor, she wanted his brother, Reginald Strickland, and the president of the law firm, Daniel Kris Wiatr to serve as co-executors.

The singer died one day before she and Wynonna were to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. The daughters later attended the ceremony together and accepted the honour on behalf of their mother.

Naomi Judd and her husband, Larry Strickland (Getty Images)

Ashley confirmed Judd had died from suicide in May in an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America.

Opening up about her mother’s mental health issues, Ashley said there was a “catastrophe...going on inside her”.

“When we’re talking about mental illness, it’s very important to be clear and to make the distinction between our loved one and the disease.

“It’s very real, and it lies, it’s savage. Our mother couldn’t hang on until she was inducted into the Hall of Fame by her peers.

“The lie that the disease told her was so convincing. That you’re not enough, that you’re not loved, that you’re not worthy. Her brain hurt, it physically hurt.”