News Releases
Also, Interviews with Husband and Wife Team Vince Gill and Amy Grant and Country Ladies We Love Sara Evans, Jennifer Nettles, Julie Roberts and Lee Ann Womack
(New York, NY – October 3rd, 2006) – Country star Wynonna Judd graces the cover of the November Country Music Issue of Ladies’ Home Journal just as her first solo holiday album, Wynonna: A Classic Christmas drops. In the exclusive interview, Judd admits that she was “one week away” from gastrointestinal surgery before she changed her mind. “I had arranged to do it anonymously and pay with cash so no one would know it was me. But at that point God just said: ‘This is not your path,’” she says. Judd’s album and the November issue of Ladies’ Home Journal hit October 10th.
Judd reveals that, at 42, she is considering having more children with her husband D.R. Roach, her long-time bodyguard whom she married in 2003: “What the heck, I’m gonna see if I can, crazier things have happened. [My daughter] Grace says, ‘I’d like a black sister or brother’ – she’s around my singers, and most of them are black – and I say, ‘Be quiet and do your homework.’ But I do think I may adopt.” She says that when her sister Ashley Judd found out they first got together, she said: “'Ewwww! That’s Roach! You can’t be kissin’ Roach!’” But, Wynonna says: “It was like…in an instant, the arrow through my heart, I was in love with him. And I love him more today than when we first got together.” And he has a sexy streak to him: “He once did a dance for me as if he were a Chippendale’s guy. Leather pants, bow tie…the whole thing!”
Also, when Ladies’ Home Journal asked if Judd ever had suicidal thoughts, she reveals: “I’ve had my dark night of the soul. I went through a lot of isolated moments. Thank God for my faith. Even when I was so depressed it was hard to get out of bed, I kept reading [the Bible] and it saw me through.” However, she defines herself as “spiritual” more than religious: “Religion is for people who fear hell; spirituality is for people who’ve been to hell.”
Judd also candidly discusses her eating disorder, for which she was treated at Shades of Hope, an all-addiction treatment center, earlier this year. “I’m healing and recovering from food addiction. I don’t have normal behavior with food. I’d rather eat than do a lot of other things, and that’s just not normal. For me the food addiction is a spiritual issue.”
About Ashley, who also spent time at Shades of Hope, she says: “Sometimes me and Ashley and our mama talk about each other in magazines as if we’re not gonnna read it! Which is so wrong. So I don’t want to talk about Ashley directly. I don’t want her to read in a magazine about something she holds sacred. But I’ll say that when you finally open up, you learn a lot about yourself…In my family, well, my mom raised two champions, and there was a tremendous cost to that. Half assed-was never an option.”
Inside the issue, Ladies’ Home Journal also visits the house of husband and wife superstars Vince Gill and Amy Grant and interviews country stars Sara Evans, Jennifer Nettles, Julie Roberts and Lee Ann Womack and. Highlights from the interviews include:
• In 2000, the Queen of Christian Pop Amy Grant and the King of Country Vince Gill got married, leaving behind first spouses and their fans’ mountain of expectations. Now, Gill says: “A blended family can be awkward. Amy’s kids’ father is very much a part of their lives. I told Amy, when we first got together, ‘They’ll see for themselves, in their own time, who I am and how I treat you.’ And time has been a great healer for everybody.” Grant adds: “There was a time when our life was upheaval, when it is hard for any child, and then it settled again. If you break a bone, and it’s reset properly, it’s actually stronger. I wouldn’t wish anybody a broken bone, but if you use this situation to your advantage, you can have a lot of honest conversations about what you’ve learned. Our children don’t look at their parents as being perfect.
• The Country Music Awards-nominated Dancing With the Stars’ contestant Sara Evans shares: “I think farm life is actually why it’s easy for me to juggle everything. You’re constantly working and gearing up for a new phase of whatever crop you’re growing and balancing everything. In the summer you haul hay, in the fall you harvest, and spring you plant and the whole time you’re waiting for the big payoff. It really is a lot like the music industry: The records are just like the crop you’re waiting to harvest.”
• Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles, Country Music Award-nominated for her duet with Bon Jovi, says: “Female singers are the new face of country music, but radio stations are hesitant to take chances on them. Part of me thinks, ‘It’s been like this from the beginning, ladies. Put on your big-girl panties and let’s show ‘em!’”
• Julie Roberts of the smash-hit CD Men & Mascara explains how she stays in touch with her boyfriend Carolina Panthers’ star Jason Kyle: “We’ve been together two years and we see each other about once a month. On his off season he comes to my shows, but when he’s in season and can’t leave, I watch some of his games. And we talk on the phone every day. We make it work.”
• Reigning Queen of Country Lee Ann Womack admits: “My mom cooked every meal at home. We do takeout every meal at a different time. I can’t even imagine the four of us sitting down having dinner together every night – isn’t that terrible?”
About Ladies’ Home Journal
Founded in December 1883, Ladies' Home Journal has been inspiring, informing and entertaining women for 123 years. Published monthly by Meredith Corporation (NYSE: MDP), Ladies’ Home Journal has a circulation of 4.1 million and a readership of 13.5 million. The magazine’s interactive online companion, www.lhj.com, has 1.8 million unique visitors and 20 million page views each month.
Contact:
Mariela Azcuy
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mariela.azcuy@meredith.com