Ashley Judd in hospital following ‘catastrophic’ accident in the Congo

Kiss the Girls actor says she was left ‘howling like an animal’ on the rainforest floor

Actor Ashley Judd in 2018 (Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images)

Ashley Judd has been taken to hospital following a “catastrophic” accident in the Congo.

The Kiss the Girls actor revealed in an Instagram Live that she was resting in a “trauma unit in beautiful South Africa” after sustaining “massive catastrophic injuries” during a rainforest excursion.

Judd said that she had been travelling in the Congo when she tripped over a fallen tree. She recalled lying on the forest floor for five hours, and “howling like an animal” while being carried back to her camp by her “Congolese brothers”.

She added that she faded in and out of consciousness during the journey out of the rainforest and to the capital of Kinshasa, and had kept herself awake by reciting Bible passages.

She was finally taken to hospital in South Africa after what she described as an “incredibly harrowing” experience.

Read more: Ashley Judd is right to sue Harvey Weinstein for ‘damaging her career’ – it’s time we recognise the real impact of sexual harassment

In the Instagram Live, Judd said that the accident was a reminder of her privilege as a person of means travelling in the Congo, explaining: “The difference between a Congolese person and me is disaster insurance that allowed me, 55 hours after my accident, to get to an operating table in South Africa.”

Judd, who is the daughter of country singer Naomi Judd, has appeared in films including Heat, Double Jeopardy and Bug.

In 2018, she sued convicted rapist and former film mogul Harvey Weinstein for “damaging her career” after she rejected his sexual advances, and scuppering an opportunity to star in the Lord of the Rings trilogy by describing her as difficult to work with.

In 2020, an appeals court allowed Judd to pursue her sexual harassment claims against Weinstein.