Ashley Judd opened up very honestly about a painful part of her past and her complicated relationship with her late mother, Naomi Judd. During a recent episode of Lifetime’s docuseries The Judd Family: Truth Be Told, Ashley revealed that she was sexually assaulted and raped multiple times as a young teenager while working as a model in Tokyo, Japan.
She was just 14 years old and living alone, far away from home, when it happened. Ashley described how people at the modeling agency forced her to take off her clothes and even walk around naked. She called it “a summer of commercial sexual exploitation.” She said the head of the agency molested her all summer, and another man raped her twice. Even another model assaulted her. “They just consumed my body,” she said, showing how helpless and violated she felt.
When Ashley came back to Tennessee, she wrote about the assaults in her diary. Unfortunately, Naomi found those journal entries and confronted Ashley. But instead of support, Ashley felt her mother’s reaction was harsh and dismissive, making her feel like her trauma wasn’t real or valid.
Ashley emphasized that as a young girl, she was not a willing participant — she was a victim. She explained that Naomi didn’t have a deep understanding of sexual assault or rape at that time, and her reaction was to “sneer” and shut Ashley down, which left her feeling unheard and invalidated.
Despite this, Ashley also praised her mom for standing by her during a very public battle against Harvey . Ashley was one of the first women to speak out against Weinsten.
