NEWSNaomi Judd's Husband Larry Strickland Opens Up About The 'Chaotic' Months Leading To Her Death
Dec. 15 2022, Published 5:15 p.m. ET
Months after country music icon Naomi Judd died by suicide last April, her longtime love, husband Larry Strickland, is getting candid about the ‘chaotic’ few months leading up to the star’s death.
“It was a very chaotic, hectic, hectic time,” Strickland revealed in a new sit-down published on Wednesday, December 14, describing the entire ordeal as being “extremely hard.”
“She had several therapists that she was seeing, and her energy level had gotten really low,” Strickland 76, recalled of his late wife, who was 76 at the time of her passing last spring. “She was getting really weak.”
Despite these visible changes, Strickland explained that he didn’t realize how just how much Judd was struggling with her mental health, admitting that his strict approach to caring for his late spouse towards the end of her life “might have overdone it.”
"I was trying to get her to eat. I was trying to get her to exercise,” he remembered. “I handled her medications and had to make sure she had what she needed. I was trying every way I could."
In hindsight, Strickland said he wished that he would have taken a more gentle approach to looking after his longtime love considering her struggles.
"If I had known where she was, I would've been much softer on her," he explained. "I would've been gentler and more understanding instead of tired and exhausted because it was wearing me out, too.”
Want OK! each day? Sign up here!
“To know now that she was contemplating [suicide], I look back and just wish I had been holding her and comforting her instead of pushing her,” he continued of Judd. “I don't know if that would've helped, but it certainly wouldn't have hurt."
Strickland and Judd were married in 1989.
People reported on Strickland’s comments detailing Judd’s final months.
If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or considering suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
