The country music legend Wynonna Judd is giving her fans a look into her special relationship with her young granddaughter Kaliyah.
Although the 60-year-old songstress tends to keep her personal life fairly private, she gave a rare update on how she was raising the two-year-old girl during an appearance Thursday as a guest host on the Today Show.
Judd — whose mother Naomi Judd died by suicide in April 2022 — has been caring for her granddaughter in the wake of her daughter Grace Kelley’s repeated run-ins with the law.
Kelley was arrested twice in 2024, first for soliciting prostitution before she was again apprehended for allegedly stealing a church van and driving it on a ‘heroin-fueled rampage.’
While chatting with regular Today host Jenna Bush Hager, Judd admitted that she tried to avoid electronic distractions when she’s spending quality time with her granddaughter.
‘I don’t have a computer,’ she revealed. ‘I don’t watch television unless it’s planned ’cause I’m raising my 2½-year-old granddaughter. I listen to her.’
The singer added that her rejection of unnecessary technology meant she was rarely sharing photos on Instagram, and she enforced a no-phones rule at the dinner table.
However, there’s one thing that little Kaliyah absolutely can’t live without — the YouTube star Ms. Rachel.
The social media star — real name: Rachel Accurso — has a series of popular children’s music videos on the streaming site, titled Songs For Littles.
Ms. Rachel started posting the videos in 2019, and they skyrocketed in popularity at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic as parents stuck at home were desperate to find ways to entertain their children.
‘I’m about to lose my mind,’ Judd joked about her overdose on children’s music.
Although she applauded Ms. Rachel for her commitment and for creating videos that children adore, she made it clear that she could never do something similar.
‘I just can’t talk like that. I wish I could be that animated, but I just don’t know how,’ she admitted.
‘My life on the farm is simple and sweet, which is what we need more of,’ Judd continued.
Part of her rejection of distraction technology and her life away from the hustle and bustle of the city is an attempt to make a more settled life after spending years touring.
‘I do what I have to do to learn how to just live off the road,’ she admitted. ”Cause I was on the road at 17, so I never got to learn how to do life outside of show business.’
‘Food, family and fun is my goal,’ Judd added pleasantly.
She has stepped in to care for her grandchild amid her daughter Grace’s repeated legal issues.
Grace gave birth to her daughter after a May 2023 arrest for violating her parole and breaching a restraining order, according to The Daily Beast.
She was ultimately granted a short leave from jail in order to give birth, but she had to return afterward to finish out her sentence.
Then, in April 2024, Grace was arrested in Alabama after allegedly exposing her breasts and ‘lower body’ while walking next to a busy highway.
She was initially charged with two misdemeanors, indecent exposure and obstructing government operations, but later that month a third charge of soliciting prostitution was added.
In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Millbrook Police Chief P.K. Johnson claimed that Kelley had been holding a sign by the road that read, ‘A Ride for a Ride.’
Kelley’s soliciting chage was eventually dropped, and her indecent exposure charged was reduce to the less-severe public lewdness.
That wasn’t the end of her legal run-ins, as she was arrested on August 3 in rural Georgia and charged with misdemeanor counts of fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, driving with a suspended/revoked license and not using motorcycle equipment properly, per the Carroll County Jail’s records.
She was accused of stealing a pastor’s van in rural Virginia, even though he got in another car and attempted to box her in to stop her joy ride.
Police eventually stopped her, at which point she allegedly told them that ‘she had sold her soul to the devil.’
According to police, she later tested positive for heroin use that evening.
The pastor, who lives 20 miles from the nearest town in a rural area, exclusively told DailyMail.com that he believed Kelley may have snuck into his trailer while he was watching his son’s ballgame and come along for their ride back home.
He added that he later found a bag and some shoes that he believed belonged to her in the trailer, bolstering his suspicions.
Kelley also has previous arrests from years earlier for methamphetamine production, evading arrest and driving while intoxicated.
