The Irish singer famed for her cover of Prince's 'Nothing Compares 2 U' talked about 'the only thing' that kept her alive as she 'absolutely' had no one in her life.
- Aug 6, 2023
AceShowbiz - Sinead O'Connor divulged her suicidal thoughts while living in a Travelodge. The "Nothing Compares 2 U" singer, who was discovered dead in London on July 26 aged 56 after moving back to the capital from her native Ireland to work on what turned out to be her final album, opened up about her mental health torment while living in the budget hotel in the US in 2017 - months before she appeared on "Dr. Phil" to detail the horrific abuse she suffered at the hands of her mum.
"I'm all by myself. And there's absolutely nobody in my life except my doctor, my psychiatrist, the sweetest man on Earth, who says I'm his hero, and that's about the only thing keeping me alive at the moment... and that's kind of pathetic," she said while weeping in a 12-minute video posted on Facebook.
"I am now living in a Travelodge motel in the a**e end of New Jersey. I want everyone to know what it's like - that's why I'm making this video. Mental illness, it's like drugs, it doesn't give a s**** who you are, and equally what's worse, it's the stigma, it doesn't give a s*** who you are."
A year before the Facebook video, she disappeared for more than 36 hours after going on a bike ride in Chicago.
Sinead went on to tell Dr. Phil, 72, she was kept in a "torture chamber" by her mum. She said on his show about her mother, who died in 1985 in a car crash aged 45 when Sinead was 19, "I am fed up of being defined as the crazy person; the childhood abuse survivor."
"She (my mother) ran a torture chamber. She was a person who took delight in hurting you. She used to make me say over and over again, 'I am nothing. I am nothing' while she was beating me. She was not well; she was really very, very, very not well. I would say she was possessed although I'm not sure I believe in such things."
When Dr. Phil asked what she loved most about her mum, the singer replied, "What I love about my mother is that she's dead."
Sinead - whose remains have now been returned to her family, and whose death came 18 months after her son Shane, 17, took his life after he escaped from a hospital while on suicide watch - was also open about her horrific relationship with her mum Johanna Marie in her brutal memoir "Rememberings".
Her "Dr. Phil" chat was 27 years after Sinead wept for her mum in the "Nothing Compares" promo. She said while filming the music video, she couldn't stop thinking about her mum as she walked around during its shoot, adding, "I didn't know I was going to cry singing it. Every time I sing the song, I think of my mother. I never stopped crying for her."
