Wynonna Judd only learned the identity of her biological father when she was 30.
Wynonna Judd was 30 before she found out who her biological father was
The 60-year-old singer – who had a fraught relationship with her late mother, Naomi Judd – grew up believing her mom’s first husband, Michael Ciminella, was her dad but found out the truth decades later.
Speaking on Lifetime docuseries ‘The Judd Family: Truth Be Told’, Wynonna said: “I knew that Michael didn’t like me and Mom didn’t really love him.
“Mom told me, ‘I was 16 and I was a virgin, I was home alone and [Wynonna’s biological father] came over and took advantage of me.’”
Naomi – who had married Michael when she was just 17 years old and pregnant with Wynonna – eventually told her daughter that she had loved the man, Charlie Jordan, but their relationship didn’t work out.
And Wynonna admitted she was “really angry” that the truth had been kept from her for so long, and she believes the secret sparked a lot of her mother’s behaviour towards her.
She said: “There was all this pressure and everybody kinda freaked out, and he went off to join the Army.
“Look, I understand it, but I was really angry with her about it. I was so devastated that I thought there was a part of me that’s missing. The glass is half empty.
“Learning about my birth father, I feel more like him than I do my mother in certain areas. And I think Mom was terrified of that half of me because she couldn’t control it. She couldn’t bring it in and train it. That’s why Mom was very hard on me.”
Charlie passed away in 2000 at the age of 56 but his daughter never met him and she believes he didn’t feel “worthy” enough to be part of her life.
She said: “My understanding is that Charlie knew about me and that he always felt like he couldn’t do anything about it.
“I guess he didn’t feel he was worthy or whatever, like, ‘Wynonna’s got this life and I can’t just show up in it.’
“And for a while, I wasn’t ready to go meet him. What if he’s a jerk? What if we don’t make a connection? What if, what if, what if? Fear, fear, fear. But when I finally decided to, it was too late.”
Wynonna decided not to go to Charlie’s funeral because she felt it would be “too much” for his family.
Naomi took her own life in April 2022 at the age of 76.
