Ashley Judd has confirmed in a new interview that her mother, Country Music Hall of Famer Naomi Judd, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Naomi died April 30th at the age of 76.

“She used a weapon…my mother used a firearm,” Ashley told Diane Sawyer in an interview with “Good Morning America.” “So that’s the piece of information that we are very uncomfortable sharing, but understand that we’re in a position that if we don’t say it someone else is going to.”

Ashley calls Naomi’s final day a “mixed day,” noting that she was over the house for a visit when it happened. “Mom said to me, ‘Will you stay with me?’ and I said, ‘Of course I will,’” Ashley shares. “I went upstairs to let her know that her good friend was there and I discovered her. I have both grief and trauma from discovering her.”

Ashley shared that her family chose her to talk about her mother’s tragic death in order to get the information out before others reported it. They also chose to speak to help others who may be struggling with mental illness like her mother. Ashley pointed out that her mother’s condition was so bad she “couldn’t hang on” one day to see her Country Music Hall of Fame induction.

“That is the level of catastrophe of what was going on inside of her,” she says, “because the barrier between the regard in which they held her couldn’t penetrate into her heart, and the lie the disease told her was so convincing.”

Source: Good Morning America