Ashley Judd - Personal Life

Personal Life

In December 1999, Judd was engaged to Scottish racing driver Dario Franchitti, who was driving in the Champ Car World Series. He has, since the demise of the Champ Car World Series, raced in IndyCar and NASCAR. The couple were married, on December 12, 2001, at Skibo Castle, near Dornoch, Scotland. The couple divide their time between a home in Scotland and their farm outside Franklin, Tennessee, USA. They have no children. In her book she said this is because she considers it "unconscionable to breed."

Although Judd is known to attend University of Kentucky basketball games regularly (frequently sitting in the student section), she has also attended several Kentucky football games. Judd has been a guest columnist for a local Kentucky newspaper, writing about the NCAA championships. Judd posed for a poster wearing only an ice hockey jersey for fund raising purposes for the University of Kentucky's hockey team. She is an avid practitioner of yoga, cooking, and gardening.

In February 2006, Judd entered a program at Shades of Hope Treatment Center in Buffalo Gap, Texas and stayed for 47 days. She was there because of personal issues, including depression, insomnia and codependency.

A disagreement between Judd and Indy race car driver Milka Duno took place during the 2007 Indy Racing League season. After the final race of the 2007 season, the actress stated to the assembled news media, "I know this is not very sportsmanlike, but they've got to get the 23 car (Duno) off the track. It's very dangerous. I'm tired of holding my tongue. She shouldn't be out there. When a car is 10 miles (an hour) off the pace, it's not appropriate to be racing. People's lives are at stake."

On May 9, 2007, it was announced that Judd had completed her bachelor's degree, in French, from the University of Kentucky. In a May 2007 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Judd explained that she had completed her degree requirements in 1990 with 27 more credit hours taken than the required 120 hours, but had mistakenly thought she was one class short of the necessary requirements. At this time, she realized that she only needed to "sign a piece of paper" in order to graduate, and receive her diploma. DeGeneres then surprised Judd by presenting her with her diploma, which Ellen had acquired from the university.

Judd was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky on May 9, 2009. Judd subsequently earned a Mid-Career Master in Public Administration degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2010.