Anderson Cooper and Ashley Judd got emotional while discussing their family members who died by suicide.
The actress was a guest on CNN’s “All There is with Anderson Cooper,” Wednesday, where they discussed the death of her mother, country star Naomi Judd, who died by suicide in 2022 at age 76.
The interview prompted Cooper, 56, to speak about the death of his brother, Carter who died by suicide at age 23 in 1988, causing him to nearly break down in tears.
“I’m here Anderson,” Judd intoned softly as Cooper stifled back crying.
“One of the things that I’ve found so hard about losing my brother to suicide is I get stuck in how his life ended and my shock over it and my realization that I didn’t really know him,” he said shakily.
Carter plunged to his death after jumping out the window of their mother Gloria Vanderbilt’s Upper East Side apartment while Vanderbilt was home.
Judd, 55, called her mother’s death simultaneously, “traumatic and unexpected because it was death by suicide and I found her.”
Judd believes that her mother “is now in the vastness of consciousness in the mind of God. What a great place to be.
“All of these mysteries which just made her daydream are now where her spirit resides.”
The humanitarian advocate also reminisced about her mother always getting up to greet her, even if the country singer was in the depths of depression.
“Invariably, she got up. No matter how sick she was,” Judd recalled. “And she would light up. And she would come to the back door and open it. And she would exclaim, ‘There’s my darling, there’s my girl, there’s my baby!’ And that’s how I see my mom.”
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or text Crisis Text Line at 741741.
