How Did Sinead O’Connor Die? She Battled Mental Health Issues For Years
She was a legendary musician and performer, admired for her strong, feminist sense of resolve in the face of controversy. So, the news of how Sinéad O’Connor died was upsetting for fans, particularly with the knowledge that her career was plagued by mental health struggles.
If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, help is available. Call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free and confidential counseling.
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Born on December 8, 1966, Sinéad Marie Bernadette O’Connor—later to become Shuhada’ Sadaqat when she converted to Islam in 2018—released her debut album in 1987, The Lion and The Cobra. It charted internationally and was followed by her second album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got would become her biggest success with the single ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, written by Prince. O’Connor (she would maintain this as her stage name) would go on to make 10 studio albums across her career, the last of which was released in 2014 titled I’m Not Bossy, I’m The Boss. But she would never conform to the presence expected, or demanded, of her. “The media was making me out to be crazy because I wasn’t acting like a pop star was supposed to act,” she told the New York Times in 2021. “It seems to me that being a pop star is almost like being in a type of prison. You have to be a good girl.”
Rememberings by Sinead O’Connor
In October 1992, she appeared on Saturday Night Live, singing an a cappella version of Bob Marley’s “War”, which she intended as a protest against the sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church. She then showed a photograph of Pope John Paul II to the camera before tearing it up. It was said to have killed her career. “I’m not sorry I did it. It was brilliant,” she continued to the Times. “But it was very traumatizing,” she added. “It was open season on treating me like a crazy bitch.” It wouldn’t be until 10 years later that the Pope would finally acknowledge the institution’s history of sexual abuse. But privately, O’Connor was battling complex post-traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder, after originally being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Then on July 26, 2023, news broke that Sinead O’Connor had died, unexpectedly insofar as her fans could tell.
How did Sinéad O’Connor die?
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How did Sinéad O’Connor die? On the day the news broke, no cause of death was given. The Irish Times was the first outlet to report that O’Connor had passed, with a statement from her family that read: “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.”
In January 2022, O’Connor’s 17-year-old son (custody of whom she’d lost in 2013) had gone missing after being on suicide watch at Tallaght Hospital. His body was recovered several days later. “My beautiful son, Nevi’im Nesta Ali Shane O’Connor, the very light of my life, decided to end his earthly struggle today and is now with God,” O’Connor wrote on social media in tribute to him at the time. “May he rest in peace and may no one follow his example. My baby. I love you so much. Please be at peace.”
A week after Shane was found dead, O’Connor shared a troubling series of tweets that suggested she was planning on taking her own life. “I’ve decided to follow my son. There is no point living without him. Everything I touch, I ruin. I only stayed for him. And now he’s gone,” she wrote on an unverified Twitter account linked to her official account.
An hour later, she revealed she had admitted herself to hospital. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I am with cops now on way to hospital. I’m sorry I upset everyone,” she posted, adding: “I am lost without my kid and I hate myself. Hospital will help a while. But I’m going to find Shane. This is just a delay.”
In an interview with Dr. Phil in 2017, O’Connor revealed she’d attempted suicide no less than eight times in one year after being “flung” into menopause by a “radical” hysterectomy (removal of the uterus). “What kicked all of this off really was, I had a radical hysterectomy in Ireland two years ago and I lost my mind after that,” she said. “And that’s what I think happened with my family, and we have to give my family credit. They’re not here to speak for themselves so I don’t want to disrespect them, but the fact is, they didn’t know who the hell I was.”
She continued: “I was told to leave the hospital two days after the surgery with Tylenol and no hormone replacement and no guidance as to what might happen to me. I was flung into surgical menopause. Hormones were everywhere. I became very suicidal. I was a basket case. After the hysterectomy, I was mental.”
O’Connor also said her mother, Marie, tortured O’Connor and her siblings physically and mentally. “She had the smell of evil about her.” Marie died in a car accident in 1985. “The first thing that came to mind, actually, is that she’s dead,” she said, admitting it was a strange thing to say. “I think that it was very kind of her, although I miss her horribly. I really ache for her and I think that’s part of where my suicidal instinct comes from is that I want my mother. But I cannot wait the day that I naturally get to Heaven so I can see my mother again.”
O’Connor also explained why she shaved her head. “When we were children, my sister had the most glorious red hair,” O’Connor recalled, “like that gorgeous woman on that show Mad Men (Christina Hendricks) … But my mother took it into her head that my sister’s hair was ugly and horrible and disgusting. When I had long hair, she would introduce us as her pretty daughter and her ugly daughter. And that’s why I chopped my hair off. I didn’t want to be pretty. And it was dangerous to be pretty, too, because I kept getting raped and molested everywhere I went.” When she was an up-and-coming artist in the late 80s, music executives asked if she would grow out her hair and wear short skits. “I didn’t want to be sold on that,” she told McGraw. “If I was going to be successful, I wanted it to be because I was a good musician. Plus, I came from an age of protest singers.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, help is available. Call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free and confidential counseling.
Rememberings: Scenes from My Complicated Life
Rememberings by Sinead O’Connor
Blessed with a singular voice and a fiery temperament, Sinéad O’Connor rose to massive fame in the late 1980s and 1990s with a string of gold records. By the time she was twenty, she was world-famous—living a rock star life out loud. From her trademark shaved head to her 1992 appearance on Saturday Night Live when she tore up Pope John Paul II’s photograph, Sinéad has fascinated and outraged millions. In Rememberings, O’Connor recounts her painful tale of growing up in Dublin in a dysfunctional, abusive household. Inspired by a brother’s Bob Dylan records, she escaped into music. She relates her early forays with local Irish bands; we see Sinéad completing her first album while eight months pregnant, hanging with Rastas in the East Village, and soaring to unimaginable popularity with her cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2U.”
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