Wynonna Judd — who is hosting Christmas at the Opry on December 7 — is a country music superstar, but she is a mom above everything! The former member of The Judds shares her two children, Elijah and Grace Pauline, with her ex-husband Arch Kelley, and she’s opened up about parenthood in the past.
“I am a mother first and foremost,” she told Ladies Home Journal in 2007 when discussing her divorce from her first husband. “I’m now focused on saving myself and the children. It is hard to detach overnight. I’m healing in my own time. And so I do wear my ring. And I think what I’m teaching my kids is, ‘This happened. This is where Mom is right now. And there’s always hope.’”
Keep reading to learn more about Wynonna’s two kids, Elijah and Grace Pauline.
Elijah Judd
Elijah was born in December 1994 to Wynonna and Arch. He was named after his great, great, great grandfather, Wynonna revealed to PEOPLE in 2022. His late grandmother, Naomi Judd, once gushed over her grandson’s best qualities during an interview with GRANDmagazine in 2007.
“Elijah could be a standup comedian, and he knows that he has pleased me with his sense of humor since he was born,” Naomi told the outlet at the time.
Wynonna has posted photos of her son to Instagram over the years, giving her followers a glimpse at how much he’d grown up. In 2017, the “I Saw the Light” singer shared pictures of Elijah proposing to his then-girlfriend, Hailey Williams. The couple got married in 2020.
That year, Wynonna wished Elijah a “Happy Birthday,” penning a touching note that she shared to Instagram that read, “Elijah & I on his wedding day, October 17, 2020. To my first born, who turns 26 today, I look at this picture & it’s hard to believe that you’re married! Happy Birthday Son … I am so very proud of you [sic].”
Grace Paulie Judd
Grace Pauline was born two years after her older brother in. Wynonna and Arch welcomed her in June 1996. One year after she had her second child, Wynonna told The Tampa Bay Times that she had a difficult time giving birth.
“Let’s just say, I don’t want to get back into the delivery room. But I came the closest I’ve come to dying,” the singer-songwriter explained. “It’ll be a year in June, and I’m just starting to feel human again. … I have a separate and unique love for Grace. It’s funny when you have one and become pregnant again. You think, ‘How can I love another?’ But you make room.”
