Paternity Scandal: Naomi Judd's Ex-Husband Accuses Late Singer Of Tricking Him Into Marriage By Falsely Claiming Wynonna Was His Daughter
Jan. 24 2023, Published 5:00 a.m. ET
Late country superstar Naomi Judd's first husband claimed she tricked him into marriage by telling him she was pregnant and he was the father, RadarOnline.com has learned. Michael Ciminella confirmed that Wynonna Judd, the baby Naomi had shortly after they married in 1964, was not his daughter.
Ciminella said she was actually fathered by another of Naomi's high school classmates, Charles Jordan. Naomi's ex admitted to having sex with her as a teen, but he claimed he wasn't aware that she allegedly had also slept with Jordan. For decades, the paternity scandal was swept under the rug, but it showed early on the complicated bond Naomi had with Wynonna — and why she may have left that nasty suicide note taking aim at her oldest daughter.
"She came to me and told me she was pregnant," he stated in a 1995 interview. "I didn't assume for a moment that an 18-year-old girl whom I had known for quite some time would tell lies about something like that.
Ciminella alleged that Naomi, who was a senior in high school, misled him "because she thought my family had more money" than Jordan's."
Ciminella said he realized Wynonna was not his child when she was 3, shortly before the couple's daughter, Ashley Judd, was born.
"I just looked at her real carefully, and I knew," he revealed to his hometown paper, the Ashland Independent. He said Naomi later admitted to him that Jordan was the father, but no one ever told Wynonna.
The web of lies began to unravel when Terry Steele, Naomi's former lover, revealed that the singer had told him Wynonna was not Ciminella's child. She later told her daughter who her real father was.
Jordan later told his part of the story.
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Ciminella said Wynonna confronted her mother about why she had never told her the truth. "Her mother told her it was because she was afraid she'd throw her out of the act," he claimed.
Ciminella, who admitted to an up-and-down relationship with Naomi, said he spoke out because of her less-than-flattering portrait of him in her biography, Love Can Build a Bridge.
"Naomi has spent her career saying what a horrible person I was when she, in fact, is the one who didn't do what is, quote, right," he claimed. "She let me take the rap for something I did not do.
"I have been lied about and ridiculed in my hometown," he added.
Wynonna's real father, Charles Jordan, revealed he was hoping to meet his famous daughter someday — but only if she'd be willing.
The family's publicist later confirmed the story — saying Naomi didn't deny that Jordan was Wynonna's father.
As RadarOnline.com revealed, Naomi took her own life in April 2022, leaving behind a horrific crime scene and a cruel suicide note about Wynonna.
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