Sinead O’Connor found dead at London home. Nothing Compares 2 U singer had hoped for comeback as troubled star continued to struggle with bipolar disorder, depression and the suicide death of her teen son, Shane. Cause of death remains a mystery.
Sinead O’Connor was found ‘unresponsive’ at a home in south-east London where she was soon after pronounced dead. Cops have said they are not treating the entertainer’s sudden death as suspicious, it was revealed today.
The Irish singer best known for her 1990 global hit Nothing Compares 2 U passed away Wednesday morning – just weeks after she moved into a new flat and spoke of new songs and a 2024 tour.
No medical reason for Sinead O’Connor‘s death has been found, the coroner revealed today, with a post-mortem examination now needed and results likely to be ‘several weeks’ away.
Troubled star had sought a comeback
Offered a Met Police spokesman: ‘Police were called at 11.18am on Wednesday, July 26 to reports of an unresponsive woman at a residential address in the SE24 area. Officers attended. A 56-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene.
‘Next of kin have been notified. The death is not being treated as suspicious. A file will be prepared for the Coroner.’ A post-mortem examination to confirm the cause of Sinead’s death appears likely because she died suddenly. It is not yet confirmed that she died in her own home.
Just days before her death, Sinéad O’Connor tweeted out a tribute to her late son, Shane, on July 17.
‘For all mothers of Suicided children,’ she wrote in the caption, accompanied by the song’s link on Spotify. Great Tibetan Compassion Mantra.’
Sinead’s death comes after the troubled pop star having moved back to London at the start of July – calling the city her ‘home’ – along with described her hope and excitement at seeing the ballet and writing new songs in the days before she died.
Sinead had even posted about wanting to go on tour next year in a post about a fortnight ago, declaring: ‘The b*tch is back’, with fans hoping the fragile star was beating the depression and suicidal thoughts that dogged her for so many years, especially after the death of Sinead O’Connor’s son Shane last year aged 17.
Hi All, recently moved back to London after 23 years absence. Very happy to be home : ) Soon finishing my album. Release early next year : ) Hopefully Touring Australia and New Zealand toward end 2024. Europe, USA and other territories beginning early 2025 : ) #TheBitchIsBack
— Sinead Marie-Bernarde Aoibheann O’Connor (@786OmShahid) July 8, 2023
On the cusp of new lease of life
The star had just moved to her ‘nice new flat’, where she planned to ‘write new tunes’ and hinted at a forthcoming album and a world tour.
Sinead O’Connor also revealed her thrill of seeing the ballet in London less than two weeks ago. She tweeted: ‘SO fuggin excited to go see Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote in 14 hours and 17 minutes !!! I mean, just, OM effin’ G !!!’
In a Twitter video Sinead showed off her black Martin Johnny Cash electro acoustic guitar on the wall and said she was going to write new songs. The singer hinted that she would release a new album ‘next year’ and ‘hopefully’ start touring again, with dates in Ireland, the UK, Australia and New Zealand mooted in 2024 and 2025.
Fans were in giddy anticipation given the depth of the entertainer’s ongoing struggles with bipolar disorder, depression and the suicide death of her son Shane, 17, last year.
She posted on social media that she had moved back to London and felt ‘very happy to be home’ in a video shot in her new flat on July 9.
The social media video was filmed by the singer to prove it was her Twitter account and showed she was in the process of unpacking. Apologising for the mess, she laughed and called the modern flat a ‘s***hole’ with her belongings seen on the surfaces.
But there were also jokes about putting Vaseline on her face to look after her skin and ‘beautiful’ sun flowers that her friend had bought as a housewarming gift.
In a statement yesterday evening, her family said: ‘It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinéad. Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time.’
Forever burdened by grief and loss
At the time of her death, the musician, who changed her name to Shuhada’ Sadaqat in 2018 when she converted to Islam, was spending her time between Roscommon and London.
Mother-of-four Ms O’Connor is survived by her three remaining children.
Sinead revealed she was living like an ‘undead night creature’ since her son’s suicide last year in a poignant and desperate final Twitter post shortly before her death.
Shane, 17, took his own life in January 2022 after escaping hospital while on suicide watch, comparing her existence to being in purgatory.
She said: ‘He was the love of my life, the lamp of my soul. We were one soul in two halves. He was the only person who ever loved me unconditionally.’
Sinéad also posted a series of Spotify links to sad songs, including one she dedicated to ‘all mothers of suicided children’. She also posted links to How Can You Mend A Broken Heart by Al Green, as well as Curtis Mayfield’s Here But I’m Gone and No One Knows About A Good Thing.
Born Sinéad Marie Bernadette O’Connor in Glenageary, Co. Dublin, in December 1966, the singer had a difficult childhood. One of five children, O’Connor spoke out about being subjected to physical abuse at the hands of her mother, who died in a car crash in 1985. At the age of 15, she was placed in a Magdalene asylum for shoplifting and truancy.
Sinead O’Connor a life with pain and peaks
However, her musical talents were discovered while she was there and she released her first critically acclaimed album, The Lion And The Cobra, in 1987.
Her 1990 recording of Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U earned O’Connor multiple Grammy Award nominations and, in 1991, she was named artist of the year by Rolling Stone magazine.
In her career she recorded ten solo albums, wrote songs for films and collaborated with other artists, but was also well known for her controversial outbursts.
In 1990, O’Connor said she would refuse to go on stage in New Jersey if The Star-Spangled Banner was performed.
And the singer, who frequently spoke out about the child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, made global headlines two years later when she ripped up a photograph of Pope John Paul II while appearing as a guest on US TV show Saturday Night Live.
O’Connor was later ordained as a priest by a bishop from an independent Catholic group and announced that she wanted to be known as Mother Bernadette Mary.
In 2014, she revealed she had joined Sinn Féin and called for leader Gerry Adams to stand down.
O’Connor worried fans in August 2017 when she posted a video to Facebook in which she tearfully spoke about feeling ‘suicidal’ because of her mental health issues.
Married four times, O’Connor announced in an interview with a US magazine in 2000 that she was a lesbian and said she was bisexual in subsequent Press interviews. She also spoke openly about suffering from mental health problems. During an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2007, O’Connor revealed that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had suffered with suicidal thoughts.
The mother-of-four told Winfrey that medication had helped her find more balance, but said it was ‘a work in progress’.
In 2012, O’Connor cancelled a planned tour, saying her doctor had told her to rest after a ‘very serious breakdown’.
And, in November 2015, she posted a message on Facebook saying she had taken an overdose at a hotel in Ireland.
The next month, she said she had been detained in a hospital for mental health evaluation.
O’Connor was reported missing in the US in May 2016 when she failed to return from an early morning bike ride after making a series of Facebook posts about her family. October 2018 saw her announce she had converted to Islam and changed her name to Shuhada’ Sadaqat.
Following her son’s funeral last year, O’Connor posted a series of tweets in which she said she had ‘decided to follow my son’ but later apologised and said she was being admitted to hospital.
She is survived by her three children, Jake, 34, Róisín, 25, and Yeshua, 15.
The exact cause and nature of Sinead O’Connor’s death has yet to be stated.
