On Thursday, actress Ashley Judd called for stronger privacy laws and an end to the practice of releasing police reports related to suicide into the public record.
Citing “galling, irresponsible” efforts by unnamed journalists to obtain information about the death of her mother, Naomi, Judd urged media outlets to be considerate and not report on every single detail when a person dies by suicide.
Judd didn’t specify what prompted her statement, but earlier Thursday the New York Post published what it claimed was Naomi Judd’s suicide note.
“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,” Judd wrote. “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.”
Judd continued, “This so-called “journalism” is merely the crudest monetization of a family’s suffering and despair and a flagrant, conical disregard for public welfare. It is equally a deep violation of our right to a modicum of decency and privacy in death.”
Judd added, “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.”
Judd concluded her message and said, “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”
The Grammy-winning country music singer, Naomi Judd, died in April 2022. Last spring, Ashley provided context into her mother’s death and said she lost her mother to a “disease of mental illness.”
In addition to the statement above, Judd provided resource information for those who may be contemplating suicide.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK (8255) is a free, 24/7 confidential service that can provide people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress, or those around them, with support, information and local resources.