While a guest host on “Today with Jenna & Friends,” Wynonna Judd talked about raising her granddaughter.
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Wynonna Judd is in her parenting era again.
The 60-year-old country music icon shares two children — son Elijah Judd, 30, and daughter Grace Kelley, 28 — with her ex-husband, Arch Kelley III, but is now also raising her granddaughter.
While Judd isn’t one for live TV, she did talk about her new role with Jenna Bush Hager on her new show, “Today with Jenna & Friends.”
“I don’t really love live TV because I’m afraid I’m going to go viral for the wrong reasons. But I just had to do this,” Judd said on the Jan. 30 episode of the show.
Judd had plenty to talk about, but the conversation naturally shifted to her 2-year-old granddaughter, Kaliyah — who Judd is raising as her daughter, Grace Kelley, deals with multiple legal woes.
Kelley, who gave birth to Kaliyah in April 2022, has been arrested numerous times over the past decade on charges related to drugs, prostitution, attempting to flee an officer and violating probation.
According to Us Weekly, Judd doesn’t have legal custody of Kaliyah but has been taking care of her amid Kelley’s string of arrests.
While talking to Bush Hager, Judd revealed what life is like at home with her granddaughter.
“I don’t have a computer, and I don’t watch TV unless it’s planned because I’m raising my 2-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter. So, I listen to her,” Judd said of the shows they like to watch.
While she admits Kaliyah isn’t a big fan of cartoons, she is a fan of one popular YouTuber — Ms. Rachel.
Ms. Rachel is “a passionate educator who creates research-based videos to help toddlers and their families learn, bond, and thrive,” according to her website.
“I’m about to lose my mind,” Judd says of Ms. Rachel’s upbeat personality. “I can’t talk like that. I wish I could be that animated, but I just don’t know how. She’s in another realm.”
Judd also revealed that she and Kaliyah watch a lot of “Peppa Pig.”
“We watch all those shows. So, I know all about that, but I don’t know about ‘Severance.’ So, that tells you where I’m at at 60,” she added — referring to “Severance,” a thriller series starring Adam Scott.
Wynonna Judd performs at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in Golden Gate Park in 2016. Sterling Munksgard / Shutterstock.com
Judd, who is no stranger to life on the road, says she’s embracing a new kind of lifestyle in her 60s.
“My life on the farm is simple and sweet which is what we need more of, I think,” Judd said of her day-to-day life on her Nashville farm.
Aside from not watching a lot of TV, Judd reveals they also “don’t do phones at dinner.”
“I do what I have to do to learn how to just live off the road. I was on the road at 17 so I never got to learn how to do life outside of show business. So, now I’m learning,” she told Bush Hager.
Judd was referring to her rise to fame in the 1980s as a member of The Judds alongside her mother, Naomi Judd. The mother-daughter duo formed one of the most successful country music acts of all time.
Naomi Judd died in April 2022, just one day before the duo were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Her death also came just two weeks after the birth of her great-granddaughter.
During her appearance on “Today with Jenna & Friends,” Wynonna Judd likened her role as Kaliyah’s caretaker to Bush Hager’s new role with the “Today” show.
“I just have you on my heart. I watch you every day. I went on my own in 1992 solo, and I think about you so much,” Judd said to an emotional Bush Hager.
Bush Hager’s former co-host, Hoda Kotb, stepped down from the “Today” show in January.
“I just want to affirm you and say that being authentic is lonely,” Judd continues. “And I can imagine you feel that way sometimes. But I just love you and I appreciate you and I admire you so much.”
As for what Judd wants her life to look like moving forward: “Food, family and fun is my goal.”
