Naomi Judd's Family Slams the Release of Her Suicide Note; Ashley Judd Posts Lengthy Statement

The family of late singer Naomi Judd is speaking out after her suicide note was released to the public.

Media outlets have posted photos that were allegedly obtained from the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office in Franklin, Tennessee.

The note appeared to be written on a yellow Post-It note and attached to some documents. While we won’t be showing the note or writing it out in full, Naomi requested that her daughter Wynonna Judd not be at her funeral.

The Judd and Strickland families have released a joint statement in which they slammed the release of the note and called for legislation to prevent this from happening in the future.

Head inside to read what they said…

Ashley Judd shared the statement from her family on Twitter.

“Our family is deeply distressed by the galling, irresponsible publication of and ongoing requests for details and images of our beloved mother and wife’s death by suicide because of the trauma and damage it does to those who view such materials and the contagion risk they pose to those who are vulnerable to self-harm. This so-called ‘journalism’ is merely the crudest monetization of a family’s suffering and despair, and a flagrant, cynical disregard for public welfare. It is equally a deep violation of our right to a modicum of decency and privacy in death,” the family said in the statement.

“We remonstrate media to take as fact the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s guidelines on coverage of suicide both for public safety and to avoid re-traumatization of survivors of such a devastating tragedy. The note that was left came from the complex disease of mental illness and not from her mother’s heart,” they continued. “We hope the public and elected officials now see, with us, the keen importance of strengthening and changing state privacy laws so that police reports in the event of death by suicide are not, in fact, public record. The consequence of the law as it is presently serves only the craven gossip economy and has no public value or good.”

Naomi‘s cause of death was officially confirmed back in August.

You can read the full statement in the tweet below.