ASHLEY'S HORROR SHOW

Actress Ashley Judd shares a shocking account of how she tripped in a Congolese jungle and nearly lost her leg

- KIM ABRAHAMS

ASHLEY Judd. Hear the name and a glamorous Hollywood star is likely to come to mind, all glossy haired and red-lipped and flawlessly turned out on the red carpet.

But there’s another side to the actress too – one that takes her far from the glitz and glamour of Tinseltown and deep into the steamy heart of the African jungle.

Twice a year, Ashley spends at least a month in remote parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo as part of a research project involving bonobos, endangered apes found only in the rainforests in the east of this vast Central African country.

Over the years the 52-year-old star has formed close friendships with local men and women who work on the project – and without them, she says, she may well not have made it out of there alive.

The story Ashley tells sounds like something from a horror movie. A freak accident, a catastrophic leg fracture, a harrowing 55-hour journey across nightmarish terrain, biting down on a stick because there was no pain relief . . .

Ashley is now in hospital in Sandton, Johannesburg, where she spent days in intensive care while doctors battled to save her shattered leg and stem internal bleeding.

But she has lived to tell the tale – and what a tale it is.

THE initiative Ashley is involved with is part of the Kokolopori Bonobo Research Project. Trackers and researchers follow bonobos daily, collecting behavioural, ecological and epidemiological data on the animals.

Tracking the apes is stealthy work and requires starting the day under the cover of darkness – which is exactly what Ashley was doing the day everything went horrifically wrong.