Ashley Judd Reveals Sexual Abuse, Incest Suffered as Child in New Memoir

In a shocking new memoir released today, Ashley Judd details a childhood wrought with lies, pain and sexual abuse. The title: All That Is Bitter & Sweet.
"My mother, while transforming herself into country legend Naomi Judd, created an origin myth for the Judds that did not match my reality," Judd writes.
"She and my sister were quoted as saying our family put the 'fun' in dysfunction. I wondered: 'Who, exactly, was having all the fun? What was I missing?'"

Ashley reveals that while her mother led her father, Michael Ciminella, on to believe he was the father of Wynonna, it was actually another man, Charlie Jordan.
The 42-year-old Kentucky native said that "there was always marijuana inside the house" and that her dad "was prone to taking hallucinogenics with friends."
When she was a toddler, her parents marriage dissolved, and Naomi's new man, who moved in, was an "abusive full-blown heroin addict with a criminal record."
"I was taught to believe that our lifestyle was normal and never to question it or complain. I loved my mother, but at the same time dreaded the mayhem."
Sadly, Ashley then recounts an experience with sexual abuse.
"An old man everyone knew beckoned me into a dark, empty corner and offered me a quarter for the pinball machine at the pizza place if I'd sit on his lap."
"He opened his arms, I climbed up, and I was shocked," she writes.
Then Judd adds: "He suddenly cinched his arms around me, squeezing me and smothering my mouth with his, jabbing his tongue deep into my mouth."
Shocking and depressing as this is, Ashley's candor in discussing it should help victims of similar abuse realize they are not alone, and are not to blame.