Do Ashley’s Allegations Explain Oprah Awkwardness?

Do Ashley Judd's allegations of incest and neglect in her new memoir, All That's Bitter & Sweet, shed light on recent public tension within her family?

Early in this season of OWN's gently addictive Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes, Wynonna and Naomi Judd visit The Oprah Winfrey Show. Backstage, it was clear that the topic of Ashley and her absence from the show was taboo. Producers worried how Oprah would approach the question of Ashley onstage, should she even decide to ask it (which, of course, she did). Naomi explained curtly that Ashley was busy with her philanthropy and that was that. But an uncomfortable silence hung over the appearance.

Watch Ashley talk about her abuse on Today

Could it have had anything to do with Ashley's memoir? Perhaps she didn't want to appear because she was saving all the juicy stuff for the book. Or maybe the content included had already caused a rift ("I loved my mother. But at the same time I dreaded the mayhem and uncertainty that followed her everywhere... I often felt like an outsider observing my mom's life as she followed her own dreams," she's quoted as having written).

The family's dynamic, which they often play out in public, is fascinating. For the record, Ashley will not be appearing on the Judds' upcoming OWN show ("Heck no," said Wynonna, when Larry King posed the question), and right about now, that feels like a shame.