Her Love Is Country Strong: All About Wynonna Judd's Kids
Wynonna Judd is one half of the most famous family bands in country music history, but she’s also a proud mother of two children herself. After years of touring with her late mother, Naomi Judd, Wynonna became a mom in 1994 when she welcomed son Elijah with Arch Kelley III. Their second baby, daughter Grace, arrived in 1996, and Wynonna—then a successful solo artist—started to rethink her priorities.
“I used to do anything for acceptance. Now as a mother, I stand there and say, ‘Here's who I am, take me as I am,’” she told the Tampa Bay Times in 1997. “Lots of singers, their identity is focused on the stage. Now I have a separate identity from that stage. I come home and I’m a mama.”
Wynonna didn’t always have an amicable relationship with her own mother, but she said the birth of her children was one thing that brought them closer. Naomi was in the delivery room when Wynonna gave birth to Grace, offering words of encouragement and affection.
“When you’re a mother, I don't care how old you are, that love is so pure and so heavy,” Wynonna said. “I learned that my mother used to hold me [as a baby]. That time that was so pure before you grow up and say, ‘I hate you.’ It reminds you of how you and your mother started out.”
After Naomi died by suicide in April 2022, Wynonna looked to her kids and grandkids for hope in a dark period. “Somebody said, ‘Are you angry?’ I said, ‘Hell, yeah. I’m angry. My granddaughter was born 12 days before she left. I have anger,’” Wynonna told People in October 2022. “But then I realized after the compassion and all the pieces that there’s some real joy there and to celebrate the joy as much as I can.”
Keep reading for a complete guide to Wynonna’s family.
Related: Wynonna and Ashley McBryde Perform Touching Tribute to Naomi
How many children does Wynonna Judd have?
Wynonna Judd has two children: son Elijah Judd, born in 1994, and daughter Grace Pauline Kelley, born in 1996.
Who is the father of Wynonna Judd’s children?
Wynonna shares both of her children with ex-husband Arch Kelley III, whom she wed in 1995. Kelley, a businessman, and Wynonna met in the early 1990s on a flight between Los Angeles and Nashville. The former couple divorced in 1998, citing irreconcilable differences as the reason for their split.
Who are Wynonna Judd’s children?
Elijah Judd
Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images for ACM
Wynonna’s eldest child, son Elijah, was born on Dec. 23, 1994. He works as a deputy with the Williamson County Sheriff’s Department in Tennessee. On Oct. 17, 2020, he married girlfriend Hailey Williams after seven years of dating.
Elijah stays out of the spotlight for the most part, but Wynonna occasionally gives him adorable shoutouts on social media. “My, how time flies when you’re a mama,” she wrote via Instagram in December 2021, in honor of Elijah’s 27th birthday. “I am so proud of the man that you have become!”
Grace Pauline Kelley
Wynonna’s only daughter, Grace Pauline, was born on June 21, 1996. Grace and Wynonna have had a rocky relationship over the years, with Wynonna’s sister, Ashley Judd, temporarily obtaining custody of Grace, then 17, in 2013. (Grace had petitioned a Tennessee court to give custody to Ashley after Wynonna sent her to a “behavioral” camp in 2012.)
As an adult, Grace has had several run-ins with authorities. In 2017, she was convicted of the manufacturing, delivery, sale and possession of methamphetamine and received a suspended sentence of 11 months and 29 days in jail. Her jail time, however, was to be served on probation after 30 days behind bars followed by 180 days in a recovery program. After leaving the recovery program early, Grace was arrested again and sentenced to eight years in prison.
Grace was granted parole in November 2019 and released early, but she was arrested again in April 2020 for violating the terms of her probation. At that point, she was sentenced to another eight years behind bars. She was granted parole in April 2021 but arrested again later that year for violating her probation and sent back to jail.
In December 2022, Grace was granted early release with the condition that she complete programs in cognitive behavioral therapy and substance abuse treatment, and perform community service work until finding employment.
As of September 2023, however, Grace was back in jail. The U.S. Sun confirmed at the time that Grace had been arrested in May 2023 for violating her latest parole terms. She is set to be released on Oct. 19, 2023.
Grace welcomed a daughter, Kaliyah, on April 13, 2022—just weeks before Grace’s grandmother Naomi Judd died by suicide at age 76. While Wynonna was devastated by her mother’s death, she said that Kaliyah was a light in an otherwise dark time. “She gives me hope,” Wynonna explained during an October 2022 appearance on the Today show. “They give you hope; they give you something to think about other than yourself. Because so much of what we do is about us, it’s nice to be with her because she doesn’t care what I look like.”
How old are Wynonna Judd’s kids?
Wynonna’s son, Elijah, will celebrate his 29th birthday in December 2023. Her daughter, Grace Pauline, turned 27 in June 2023.
Related: Find Out Wynonna Judd's Net Worth in 2023
Are any of Wynonna Judd’s children musicians?
Neither Elijah nor Grace followed their mother into the family business, but Wynonna is still a proud mom—even when her kids make mistakes. “I’m no different than anyone else,” Wynonna said during a 2020 interview with John Rich. “I’ve got kids who have made great successful choices. I have just as much to say about the testimony—emphasis on the word ‘test’—of both my children saying, ‘Wow, that didn’t work.’ I will tell you this. My daughter is the strongest Judd woman in our ‘herstory.’”
Does Wynonna Judd have any stepchildren?
After marrying third husband, Scott “Cactus” Moser, in 2012, Wynonna became the stepmother of his three adult children: Sunshine, Cahl, and Wyatt. In the 2023 documentary Wynonna Judd: Between Hell and Hallelujah, Sunshine gushed about how happy her dad and Wynonna make each other. “Them together is kind of a fun thing to watch,” she said. “They’re the couple that everybody wants to be.”
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