Ashley Judd Shows Off Natural Body in Swimsuit to Share Empowering Message

Ashley Judd is living by three words: “I don’t care.”

On July 22, Judd shared a video on Instagram embracing her “inner child” in the Baltic Sea before proudly declaring herself a member of the “We Do Not Care” movement, which was founded by content creator Melani Sanders.

While donning a one-piece swimsuit in the water, Judd told the camera, “Hi, I’m Ashley and I am a member of the We Don’t Care club and when I’m in my swimsuit, sometimes I get a little chaffing like right down there, so I put on cornstarch,” she said, motioning to her inner thighs.

Judd called it a “good trick,” but noted that if anyone saw “a white thing there,” she truly does not care.

“And I have a jellyfish,” she added, showing off the animal in her cupped hands. “It’s a non-stinging kind and I think the central nervous system is that part and that may not be right, and I don’t care because there’s another club that my inner child belongs to and that’s called the MSU club.”

Judd explained that the MSU club stands for “Make Stuff Up” club and that it was for “inner children.”

“As a postmenopausal woman, I don’t really care if you don’t like the MSU Club for inner children,” she added.

Judd went on to show off a series of water “tricks,” including dipping her head into the water and flipping her hair back over to form a dramatic roll, before later doing a belly flop, back flip and handstand in the water.

As Judd walked back further into the water, she noted, “Oh, I probably have cellulite. I don’t care, and I got hungry bum, and I don’t care.”

Judd emphasized her carefree message in the caption, calling the experience of menopause “human biology” and “universal.”

“What can be a hope of ‘We Don’t Care Club?’” she wrote. “What will I, with my freedom & mirth, when I let go of caring about stupid, controlling norms about my female body, be free to enJOY?”

She encouraged her followers to “play,” “be silly,” “have fun” and “feel boundless joy.”

“I bask in the unselfconscious being-ness of my True Self,” she said. “My Inner Child is free to emerge. She feels confidence & glee.”

Judd also shared a message encouraging her followers to look inward, adding, “If you let yourself be free, how would your True Self & Inner Child spend your Carefree Timelessness? How can you let go of what others expect, think, need, want? What do YOU feel, need, want, from yourself?”

She also highlighted the importance of the “Make Stuff Up Club,” noting the “beautiful, creative imaginations” of inner children.

“They want to be seen, heard, be safe, & play,” she said. “If as an adult, I am caught up in what others think of me, I ignore, neglect, & abandon my own tender Self. Today, that’s off the table. Into the Sea for me, to splash & play.”

Over the years, Judd has not shied away from addressing her personal life, including public discussion about her weight gain after her mother Naomi Judd died in April 2022.

Speaking to Dr. Jonathan Flint in October 2022, she revealed experienced another fracture in her leg over the summer after she shattered her leg in Congo in February 2021.

“And then, since my mom and everything, I’ve put on some weight, and I’m sure people are talking about it, but I don’t pay any attention to it because I know it’s a temporary condition, and the weight will come off when it’s supposed to because it is none of my business what people think of me,” she explained.

Judd said she was “sure that there is a cohort of people who are being vilely ugly” about photos she posted at her sister Wynonna Judd’s concert, calling public scrutiny “none of my business.”

“I have a healthy boundary about it, but … you try being a once ultra-fit woman who’s 54 and put on some weight. That is going to spark some very sexist conversation, by both men and women and others in our culture,” she added.