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While Ashley Judd, in her interview with The Guardian, didn't directly respond to the tabloids that chose to publish an image of a note that her mother left behind, she released a statement on Instagram a week ago that detailed the distress her family is experiencing over the \"ongoing requests and details and images of our beloved mother and wife's death by suicide.\"

\"This so-called 'journalism' is merely the crudest monetization of a family's suffering and despair, and a flagrant cynical disregard for public welfare,\" Ashley Judd said. \"It is equally a deep violation of our right to a modicum of decency and privacy in death.\"

\"The note that was left came from the complex disease of mental illness and not from her mother's heart,\" she added. \"We hope the public and elected officials now see, with us, the keen importance of strengthening and changing state privacy laws so that police reports in the event of death by suicide are not, in fact, public record.\"

\"The consequence of the law as it is presently serves only the craven gossip economy and has no public value or good,\" Ashley Judd said.

If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. Free, confidential help is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You are not on your own.

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