Sinéad O’Connor was kept in a “torture chamber” by her mum.
Sinéad O’Connor was kept in a ‘torture chamber’ by her mum
The singer, found dead in London in London aged 56 on 26 July, says she famously cried for her mum in her career-defining music video for ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ as she died five years before it was made in a car crash, but a resurfaced interview with the tormented singer and human rights activist details the horrific extent of her mother’s abuse.
Sinéad told TV psychologist Dr Phil, 72, in 2017 when she was aged 50: “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.”
Sinéad – 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 Sinéad 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.”
Tagged in Dr Phil