ASHLEY JUDD PUSHED TO THE BRINK!

NationalEnquirer.com

ASHLEY JUDD is strug­gling to cope after being socked with a devastat­ing double whammy, and friends fear she’s on the verge of a breakdown!

The actress-turned-activist, 45, was still reeling after announcing her divorce from race car driver Dario Franchitti when she was blasted as “emotionally unbal­anced” in a political dirty tricks campaign meeting.

Sources say the brutal verbal attack by her potential rival, Re­publican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, sent her over the edge.

“TO HEAR THE TAPE OF SEN. McConnell’s staff openly tearing her apart for some very personal issues cut Ashley to the bone,” a source close to Judd told The ENQUIRER.

“She’s had a lot of bad stuff thrown at her in a very short time, and we worry that she may need long-term professional mental health help right now – before it’s too late.”

Ashley – star of “A Time To Kill” and “Twisted,” and daughter and sister of country singers Naomi and Wynonna Judd – has a history of mental health issues.

In 2006, she spent 47 days at the Shades of Hope Treatment Center in Texas being treated for depres­sion, insomnia and codependency. And she admitted in a “Today” show interview: “I was absolutely certifiably crazy.”

Last January, she announced her 11-year marriage to three-time Indy 500 winner Franchitti was ending.

Soon after, Ashley – who’s trav­eled the world to support humani­tarian causes – began mulling a Democratic run for the Senate in her home state of Kentucky.

The actress – now playing the president’s wife in “Olympus Has Fallen” – dropped those plans in late March, and she was blindsided when the taped comments of Sen. McConnell’s staff were leaked.

On the tape, one aide says: “This sounds extreme, but she is emotionally unbalanced. I mean,

 some suicidal tendencies.”

Another aide then chimes in, inac­curately: “She was hospitalized for 42 days when she had a mental break­down in the ’90s,” apparently referring to her 2006 stay in the Texas facility.

JUDD FIRED BACK, slamming Sen.. McConnell for choosing “the politics of personal destruction.” Despite that tough talk, friends say the scandal has taken a heavy toll.

“Ashley is in a very fragile men­tal state right now,” her pal said. “When her marriage broke up, she lost the anchor that helped keep her mentally stable.

“We’re afraid she’s going to say, ‘What’s the point?’ and do something drastic – that’s why her closest friends are rallying around and giving her lots of love and support.

“But they can’t spend 24 hours a day with her.”