Was Naomi Judd Really Sexually Abused? Who Abused Her?

As a documentary series exploring the grief, lies, and traumas endured by a family of three women in the public eye, Lifetime’s ‘The Judd Family: Truth Be Told’ is unlike any other. That’s because it gives us a deep insight into the experiences of not only country star Naomi Judd but also her two daughters, country singer Wynonna Judd and actress Ashley Judd. However, if we’re being honest, it was the mention of the former allegedly having been molested as a mere toddler that baffled us the most here, making us wonder more about the ordeal.

Naomi Judd Was Abused By a Family Member Starting When She Was Just 3½ Years Old

According to Naomi Judd’s (born Diana Ellen Judd’s) own accounts in her 2016 memoir titled ‘River of Time,’ her very first memory from her childhood is of her terrible sexual abuse. She was reportedly merely 3½ years old and lying in bed with a high fever at her paternal grandparents’ house following a bout with chicken pox when someone came into the room. She knew immediately that it was not her mother or father from the sounds of the footsteps, so she turned around and saw her uncle Charlie – her grandmother’s brother, Charles Oscar Moore.

Naomi had allegedly pulled the sheets up to her neck before pressing her body as close to the side wall as possible, but it didn’t deter her uncle from climbing into bed beside her. As per the book, he subsequently placed his finger on his mouth and told her to “shhh,” following which he pulled her to him by her calf until she was near him and could see his exposed privates. She then claimed he tried to underess her and pull her until she was pressed up against him, which is when she realized that “no one is going to save her from” him and started fighting back.

“I jerk my arms out from under the sheet and grab the flesh of his face in my hands,” Naomi penned. “I dig my fingernails into the soft baggy skin under his eyes. Then I manage to bring a foot up and jab it into his throat, right at his Adam’s apple.” When he let her go in surprise, she reportedly scrambled up out of bed, fell onto the floor with a loud thud, and rushed out of the room while still afraid that he would follow. He didn’t, likely because of the sound from her fall and the worry that someone might come to check what it was all about, but he tried to get close to her a couple of times again when she was a teenager. It turns out he was allegedly a known sexual predator.

Naomi Judd Reportedly Never Told Her Family About the Abuse as a Child, and They Never Defended Her

As per Naomi’s own accounts, she was well aware of her family’s dynamic even as a toddler, and thus knew that sharing she was afraid of her creepy uncle wouldn’t do her any good. After all, her mother hadn’t comforted her, lifted her in her arms, or held her in her lap since the day she learned to walk, so there was no affection, care, or explicit love between them. She did have this with all her siblings, Glenn Brian Judd (1948-1965), Christopher Mark Judd (1950-2024), and Margaret Judd, but she was the eldest, so she felt a sense of responsibility towards them.

Therefore, as Naomi’s family continued letting her Uncle Charlie be around the children despite allegedly knowing he was a sexual predator, she continued being scared of him in silence. In fact, she stated in her book, “Even my own mother and father never seemed to suspect I was emotionally terrorized every time I was in Uncle Charlie’s presence,” and her grandmother had once even forced her to pose for a picture with him, as seen above. “He has his arm on my shoulder, pulling me into his waist. My face is scrunched up in disgust, and my hands are clasped tightly in front of me, protectively across my lower half.”

Naomi admittedly didn’t share her trauma with anyone until over 55 years later, and even when she did open up to her mother, Pauline “Polly” Oliver Judd, the latter didn’t really respond, per the show. However, the country star did find some sense of comfort in her daughters’ understanding, even if her admission was initially met with anger and shock over how her trauma had affected her treatment of them. In the end, though, she laid it all on the table despite deeply struggling with the realities of her past herself, and her relationship with Wynonna and Ashley was better for it. But alas, while Charles passed away on December 15, 1967, at age 79, Naomi sadly died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at age 76 on April 20, 2022.