Grace Kelley’s Past Legal Troubles and Her Journey to Sobriety. Grace Kelley, the daughter of country music star Wynonna Judd, is opening up about her turbulent past and the hard-won path she’s now walking toward sobriety. The 29-year-old has faced a string of legal issues over the last decade, beginning in 2015 with a federal charge for manufacturing meth. In 2024 alone, she was arrested three times:
first in April in Alabama on charges of indecent exposure and obstructing governmental operations, then later that summer for fleeing police while driving with a suspended license, and most recently in October after allegedly stealing a church van and trailer in Virginia. That last incident, Kelley says, was her breaking point. In a new interview with The Daily Progress, she recalled being under the influence of “bad drugs” that left her hallucinating.
After waking up inside the trailer of the Charlottesville Ground Zero Church of the Nazarene, she panicked and drove off with it. “It was like Texas Chainsaw Massacre in my mind,” she admitted. Kelley ultimately took a plea deal and served six weeks in jail — but instead of closing a door, it opened an unexpected path. Though the terms of her deal required her to stay away from the church, Pastor Kent Hart and his wife Megan reached out after her release.
Choosing compassion over distance, they welcomed her into their congregation and gave her a place to heal. “If it wasn’t for Pastor Kent and Megan Hart, I would still be out there using,” Kelley reflected. “I’d still be out there doing the same thing I was.” Today, Kelley has been sober for nine months and is an active member of the church that once pressed charges against her. She’s even been baptized there, a symbolic moment of renewal after years of struggle.
“My entire life, the reason I travel so much is I was looking for home. But ever since I came to Charlottesville and I gave my life to God — oh, man, it’s just beautiful. I love it here,” she said. For someone whose name has long been tied to headlines about arrests and addiction, Grace Kelley’s story is now one of redemption — proof that even the darkest chapters can lead to unexpected light.